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The  Library 
University  of  California,  Los  Angeles 


HUGH  lyllLl-£ft 


THE  SOURCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  TRADITION 


THE  SOURCE 


OF  THE 


CHRISTIAN  TRADITION 


A  CRITICAL  HISTORY  OF  ANCIENT  JUDAISM 


BY 

l&DOUAKD  DUJARDIN 


Eevised  Edition,  translated  by  JOSEPH  McCABE 


[issued  for  the  rationalist  press  association,  limited] 


THE  OPEN  COUET  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 
623-633  S.  WABASH  AVE.,  CHICAGO 


r- 


in  I  { 


The  historian  neither  attacks  nor  defends  religions  ;    he 

studies  how  certain  books,  which  have  become  sacred  books, 

claiming  the  veneration  of  all  ages  throughout  the  whole 

earth,  came  into  being  among  a  certain  people,  at  a  certain 

period,  in  certain  circumstances,  in  order  to  meet  certain 

needs. 

Page  99. 


The  evolution  of  the  Jewish  people  must  be  studied  with 

the  same  cold  impartiality  as  the  evolution  of  any  other 

people  of  the  ancient  East. 

Page  200. 


CONTENTS 


Jewish  History- 
Chronological  Table 
Map  of  Palestine 
Jewish  Literature     - 


PAGE 

ix 


FIRST  PART 

THE    LAW 

Chap.  I.— The  Eaely  Days  of  Jewish  History    -          -  l 

Chap,  n.— Esdras 

§  1.  The  Beginning  ------  19 

§  2.  The  Esdras  School         -----  31 

§  3.  The  First  Institutions   -----  39 

§  4.  Progress  of  the  State  of  Jerusalem        -            -            -  43 

Chap.  III.— The  Books  of  Moses 

§  1.  The  National  Epic  of  an  Imperialism  -            -            -  48 

§  2.  The  Jehovist-Elohist  Period      -             -             -             -  58 

§  3.  The  Deuteronomic  Period          -             -             -             -  74 

§  4.  The  Levitical  Period      -----  90 

§  5.  A  First  Glance  at  the  Internationalisatiou  of  Judaism-  99 


SECOND  PART 

THE  PEOPHETS 


Chap.  I.— Birth  of  Prophetism 

§  1.  Hellenism 

§  2.  The  Men  of  God 

§  3.  Hosea  and  Amos 

Chap.  II.— Jeremiah 


105 
111 
123 

131 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chap,  hi.— ezekiel 

§  1.  The  First  Book  of  Ezekiel  -  -  -  -         149 

§  2.  The  Second  Book  of  Ezekiel.  Legends  of  Samuel, 
Elijah,  and  Elisha.  Success  and  check  of  the 
Prophetic  Party  -----         155 

Chap.  IV.— The     two    Isaiahs    axd    the    Imperialist 
Eevival 

§  1.  The  Jewish  People  in  the  Days  of  the  Two  Isaiahs      -  168 

§  2.  The  First  Isaiah  -----  175 

§  3.  The  Second  Isaiah         -----  185 
§  4.  The  Tnternationalisation  of  the  Prophetic  Books.    The 

"  Age  of  the  Prophets "  -  -  -  -  194 


THIRD  PART 

THE  APOCALYPSES 

Chap.  I.— hymns  in  the  Synagogues          -          -  -  207 

Chap.  Ii.— the  First  Apocalypses    -          -          -  -  223 

Chap,  ill.— the  Roman  Period 

§  1.  Hillel  and  Shammai      -----  249 

§  2.  Renascence  of  Prophetism         .            -            -  .  257 

§  3.  Jewish  Agitators  from  the  Year  1  to  66            -  -  261 

Chap.  IV.— The  Invasion,  notes  on  the  Dispersion  -  269 


APPENDICES 

I.— "Israel" 297 

II. — The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  -  -  -  -  298 

III. — Our  "  Imperialist  "  Theory  of  the  Composition  of  the 

Mosaic  Books       -  .  .  .  .  298 

IV.— The  "Documents"     -----  299 

v.— Simeon  the  Just        -----  300 

VI. — The  Non-existence  of  the  Prophets  before  the  Chris- 
tian Era  ------  300 

VII.— Were  the  Galilaeans  Jews  ?   -  -  -  -  302 

VIII.— Spelling  of  Proper  Names      -  -  -  -  303 

Index         ...-...-  .305 


PKELIMINAKY   NOTE 


Before  we  begin  our  study  of  Judaism,  let  me  give  a  little 
elementary  information  in  regard  to  Jewish  history,  geography, 
and  literature. 

JEWISH  HISTORY. 

The  following  table  indicates  the  chief  divisions  of  Jewish 
history,  and,  side  by  side  with  it,  in  a  still  more  compendious 
form,  the  stages  in  the  history  of  surrounding  peoples. 

In  this  table  there  is  no  mention  of  the  patriarchs,  the 
captivity  of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  the  exodus  under  Moses, 
or  the  conquest  of  Canaan  by  Joshua ;  it  will  be  seen,  in  the 
course  of  the  work,  that  these  persons  and  events  are  legendary. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  tradition  places  Abraham  in  the 
twentieth  century ;  certain  recent  writers  have  sought  to  make 
him  a  contemporary  of  Hammurabi.  Moses  is  assigned  by 
tradition  to  the  sixteenth  century. 

CHRONOLOGICAL  SCHEME. 

TO  ILLUSTRATE  THE  HISTORY  OP  JUDAISM. 


Jewish  History.  Synchronisms. 

Thirty  Centuries  of  History 

BEFORE  the  SETTIjEMENT  OF  THE  ISRAELITIC  TRIBES. 

4000  B.C.  :  Sumer  0-A  kk  adian 
Empire  in  Chaldsea. 
In  Egypt,  first  dynasties. 
2000:  Hammurabi,  King  of  Baby- 
lon. 
1580  :  Amasis  I.,  King  of  Egypt. 
1300:  Salmanasar      I.,      King      of 
Assyria. 
XIV-XI  cent.  :  The  Israelitic  tribes 
in  Palestine. 
Period  of  "Judges." 


PRELIMINARY  NOTE 


1000 


933 


722 


538 


1000-538  B.C. 

The  Two  Kingdoms. 


Saul        and 
Solomon. 


David,      then 


Death  of  Solomon. 

The  two  kingdoms  of  Judah 
and  Ephraim. 

Destruction  of  the  kingdom 
of  Ephraim  by  Salman- 
asar  II.,  King  of  Assyria. 

Destruction  of  the  kingdom 
of  Judah  by  Nabuchodo- 
nosor.  King  of  Babylon. 

The  "  Deportation." 


In  the  East,  the  great  Assyrian  and 
Babylonian  Empires. 

In  Egypt,  the  last  national  dynas- 
ties. 


538-.332  B.C. 
Persian  Period. 


End  of  6th  century  :  Formation  of 
the  State  of  Jerusalem  under 
Persian  suzerainty. 

The  "Restoration." 

5th  century  :  Period  of  "  Esdras." 


538  :  Conquest  of  Western  Asia  by 
Cyrus,  King  of  Persia ;  then 
of  Egypt  by  Cambyses,  his 
successor. 


490  :  Battle  of  Marathon. 
480  :  Battle  of  Salamina. 
429  :  Death  of  Pericles. 


332-63  B.C. 
Hellenistic  Period. 


332-141 :  Judaea  passes  under  the 
suzerainty  of  Alexander 
and  his  successors  (the 
Ptolemies  in  Egypt,  the 
Seleucids  in  Syria). 

Civil  war  :  the  Machabees. 

Triumph  of  the  Machabees : 
independence  of  Judaea. 


167 
141 


332  :  Conquest  of  Western  Asia  and 
of  Egypt  by  Alexander  the 
Great,  King  of  Macedonia. 


63  B.C.-70  A.D. 
Roman  Period. 


63  :  Pompey  takes  Jerusalem. 
40-4  :  Reign  of  Herod. 

35    A.D. :  "Conversion"     of     St. 

Paul. 
66  :  Rebellion  of  the  Jews  against 

the  Romans. 
70 :  Taking    and    destruction    of 

Jerusalem  by  Titus. 


48  :  Battle  of  Pharsala  :  reign  of 

Cffisar. 
31 :  Battle   of   Actium  :    reign  of 

Augustus. 


xii  PRELIMINARY  NOTE 


JEWISH  LITERATURE. 


The  Bible  is  a  collection  of  the  following  books : — 

1.  Legendary  and  Historical  Books. — First,  there  are 
the  five  books  of  Moses :  GeJiesis,  the  best  kno^vn  of  the  five, 
relates  the  creation  of  the  world,  the  deluge,  and  the  story  of 
the  patriarchs — Abraham,  father  of  the  Jewish  people,  and 
Jacob  and  his  twelve  sons,  including  Joseph,  who  was  sold  by 
his  brethren ;  Exodus  depicts  the  captivity  of  the  Hebrews  in 
Egypt,  their  flight  under  the  leadership  of  Moses,  the  crossing 
of  the  Red  Sea,  and  the  revelation  of  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai ; 
Leviticus  continues  the  expounding  of  the  law ;  in  Numbers  we 
read  the  enumeration  of  the  people  of  Israel,  and  the  continua- 
tion of  the  law ;  lastly,  D eider onomy  expounds  a  new  series  of 
laws,  and  closes  with  the  death  of  Moses.  This  collection  of 
five  books  is  often  entitled  "The  Book  of  the  Law";  it  has 
also  the  name  of  the  Pentateuch,  or  book  of  five  volumes. 

It  is  customary  among  informed  winters  to  add  to  the 
Pentateuch  the  Booh  of  Joshua,  an  account  of  the  conquest 
of  Canaan  by  the  Israelites  under  the  command  of  Joshua. 
The  six  books  thus  combined  form  what  is  known  as  the 
Hexateuch. 

To  the  Hexateuch  succeed  the  so-called  historical  books : 
the  book  of  Judges,  for  the  more  or  less  legendary  period 
which  extends  from  Joshua  to  Saul ;  the  two  books  of  Samuel, 
for  the  reigns  of  Saul  and  David,  with  the  prophet  Samuel  as 
protagonist ;  and  the  two  books  of  Kings,  for  Solomon  and  his 
successors,  down  to  the  taking  of  Jerusalem  by  Nabuchodo- 
nosor^  and  the  Deportation. 

The  book  of  Chronicles  is  a  duplicate  of  the  historical  books  : 
the  books  of  Esdras  and  Nehemiah,  which  are  a  continuation  of 
Chronicles,  describe  the  Restoration  under  Cyrus  (end  of  the 
sixth  and  the  fifth  centuries). 

2.  Prophetic  Books. — After  the  Hexateuch  and  the  his- 
torical books  come  the  books  of  the  prophets.  There  are  three 
great  prophets — Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel  (Daniel,  the 
fourth,  being   generally  referred   to   a   different   series) — and 

^  At  the  author's  request  I  have  retained  the  older  and  more  familiar 
spelling  of  Biblical  names. — J.  M. 


PEELIMINAEY  NOTE  xiii 

twelve  minor  prophets,  who  extend  from  the  period  of  the 
kings  to  that  of  Esdras.  These  books  consist  of  series  of 
discourses  or  apologues. 

3.  The  Hagiogeaphees. — We  have  then  a  group  known 
as  the  Hagiographers ;  a  series  of  dogmatic  romances,  pious 
stories,  poetry,  and  philosophic  essays,  such  as  Job,  the  Song 
of  Solomon,  Esther,  and,  most  important  of  all,  the  book  of 
Psalms.  To  these  is  added  the  book  of  Daniel,  which  opens 
the  series  of  apocalypses. 

We  ought  to  add  to  the  preceding  group  certain  books  which 
have  not  been  admitted  by  the  Jews  into  the  Canon  of  sacred 
scriptures,  though  their  importance  is  no  less  great.  They  are 
called  the  Deutero-Canonical  or  Pseudepigraphic  books.  Most 
of  them  are  apocalypses :  for  instance,  the  books  of  Enoch. 


Traditional  Conceptions. 

The  synagogue  and — after,  and  in  harmony  with,  the  syna- 
gogue— the  Christian  Church  have  simply  accepted  as  the  date 
of  composition  of  each  of  these  works  (with  the  exception  of 
some  of  the  non-canonical  books)  the  date  of  the  latest  events 
recorded  in  each  book.  Further,  the  principal  character  of 
each  of  the  works  is  almost  always  regarded  as  the  author  of 
the  work. 

Thus  Moses  and  Joshua  are  believed  to  have  v^ritten  the 
Hexateuch  in  the  sixteenth  century  before  the  present  era. 
The  aged  prophet  Samuel  is  believed  to  have  written,  in  his 
severe  style,  the  book  of  Judges  and  the  books  which  bear  his 
name.  Each  of  the  prophetical  books  is  supposed  to  have  been 
delivered  orally  at  first,  then  written,  by  the  prophet  who  is  the 
hero  of  each  book.  As  to  the  hagiographers,  tradition  spreads 
them  over  the  whole  period  of  sacred  history,  from  Moses  to 
the  last  days  of  Judaism. 

An  elementary  criticism  sufiices  to  cast  doubt  on  these 
conceptions.  As  soon  as  any  freedom  in  the  study  of  history 
was  obtained  in  Europe,  the  traditional  teaching  was  assailed. 
After  considerable  labour  the  critical  school  had,  in  the  second 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  reached  conclusions  to  which 
it  still  adheres  to-day,  except  on  a  few  points  of  detail.     Eeuss 


xiv  PEELIMINAKY  NOTE 

in  France/  and  Graf  in  Germany,  were  the  leaders  of  this 
school.  Eenan,  in  his  History  of  Israel,  has  accepted  the 
results  of  their  exegesis  without  reserve,  and  this  has  given 
them  a  wide  publicity.  It  will  therefore  suffice  to  recall  the 
theory  of  Eenan  in  broad  outline  to  give  an  idea — in  spite  of 
more  recent  advances  in  detail — of  the  conclusions  of  the 
critical  school. 


Conceptions  of  the  Critical  School. 

To  the  period  of  the  Judges,  of  Saul,  David,  and  Solomon, 
are  assigned  the  beginnings  of  Hebrew  literature ;  namely, 
certain  old  songs,  such  as  the  Canticle  of  Deborah,  and  a  few 
heroic  narratives,  which  are  believed  to  have  been  interpolated 
in  the  body  of  the  canonical  books,  where  they  are  found. 

Literary  works  do  not  begin,  it  is  added,  until  the  age  of 
the  successors  of  Solomon,  and  a  first  version  of  Genesis  was 
written  in  Samaria.  The  prophets  appear  at  the  same  time. 
With  the  exception  of  the  second  part  of  Isaiah,  and  a  few 
fragments  scattered  through  the  whole  series,  the  prophetical 
books  are  still  assigned  to  the  dates  which  tradition  had  given 
them.  The  books  of  Judges  and  Saviuel  are  believed  to  have 
been  written  in  succession.  Then  Deuteronomy  was  promul- 
gated by  King  Josiah,  under  the  influence  of  the  prophet 
Jeremiah. 

We  come  next  to  the  ruin  of  Jerusalem  and  the  Deportation. 
The  prophets  continue  their  work :  it  is  the  age  of  Ezekiel 
and  the  second  Isaiah.  Then  there  is  the  Eestoration,  and  to 
Esdras  is  attributed  the  promulgation  of  the  laws  contained, 
chiefly,  in  part  of  Exodus,  in  Leviticus,  and  in  Numbers.  The 
Hexateuch  is  presently  completed,  and  thus  the  end  of  the 
fifth  century  would  mark  the  close  of  the  great  Biblical 
literature. 

After  a  comparative  silence  of  more  than  two  hundred 
years,  the  second  century  is  assigned  as  the  period  of  the 
psalms  and  the  apocalyptic  books,  of  which  Daniel  is  the  first. 

'  In  the  introduction  to  his  Histoire  Sainte  et  la  Loi  (third  volume  of 
his  Bible)  Eeuss  has  given  at  length  all  the  arguments — irrefutable 
arguments — which  forbid  us  to  attribute  the  Pentateuch  to  Moses,  or  to 
assign  it  to  any  period  previous  to  that  of  the  kings. 


PRELIMINAEY  NOTE  xv 


Becent  Conceptions. 

Except  as  regards  the  Psalms  and  Daniel,  the  preceding 
views  have  been  ruined  by  M.  Maurice  Vernes,  who  has  proved 
that  the  compilation  of  all  the  Biblical  writings,  especially  the 
prophetical  works,  must  be  placed  later,  not  only  than  the 
destruction  of  the  ancient  kingdoms,  but  even  than  the 
Restoration.^  M.  Joseph  Halevy,  again,  while  defending  the 
antiquity  of  the  Biblical  works,  has  demonstrated  that  the 
prophetical  books  are  later  than  the  Mosaic  writings.^ 

Tradition  placed  the  Mosaic  books  before  the  prophets. 
The  formula  of  the  critical  school,  on  the  contrary,  is :  the 
Prophets  before  the  Law.  With  the  new  theory  of  dates  we 
return  to  the  traditional  formula  :  the  Prophets  after  the  Law. 

Since  the  issue  of  the  first  edition  of  this  book  the  discovery 
of  the  papyri  of  Elephantine^  has  given  a  most  striking  con- 
firmation of  the  scheme  of  dates  which  we  had  adopted  after 
M.  Maurice  Vernes.  They  show  that  the  Jews  of  Elephan- 
tine knew  nothing  of  a  Mosaic  law  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century,  and  were  especially  ignorant  (down  to  409)  of  the 
fundamental  law  of  Deuteronomy,  though  in  constant  com- 
munication with  the  metropolis.  Certain  students  of  the 
subject  have  made  desperate  efforts  to  resist  the  evidence  ;  but, 
on  the  whole,  we  are  now  granted  almost  everything  except 

the  late  date  of  the  prophets.     One  thing  at  a  time Quite 

recently,  however,  Mr.  Thomas  Whittaker*  has  given  his  valu- 
able adhesion  to  our  thesis. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  protest  against  the  version  of  our 
theories  that  is  given  by  certain  critics,  such  as  Jean  Reville, 
who  have  represented  us  as  saying  that  not  a  single  element 
in  the  Hexateuch  is  earher  than  the  Restoration.  We  have, 
on  the  contrary,  explained  in  this  very  work  how  the  compilers 


>  See  especially  R^sultats  de  Vexigise  hiblique  (1890),  £^ssais  Uhliques 
(1891),  and  DupretendupolythHsvie  des  H^breux  (1891). 

2  See  Recherches  bibliques,  3  volumes,  1895,  1901,  and  1905. 

^  Sayce  and  Cowley,  Aramaic  Papyri  discovered  at  Assuan,  London, 
1906  ;  Sachau,  Drei  Aramaeische  Papyrusurkunde  atcs  Elephantine,  Berlin, 
1907 ;  and  Sachau,  Aramaeische  Papyrus  und  Ostraka  aus  Elephantine, 
Leipzig,  1911. 

*  The  Origins  of  Christianity,  2nd  ed.,  London,  1909. 


xvi  PEELIMINARY  NOTE 

of  the  Mosaic  writings  made  use,  after    the   Restoration,  of 
legends  and  customs  belonging  to  earlier  times. 

It  is  on  these  terms  that  we  have  proposed,  and  still 
propose,  the  following  conceptions  : — 

1.  Legendary  and  Historical  Books. — The  Mosaic 
books,  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel,  and  Kings,  were  composed 
during  the  fourth,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  third,  century. 
To  these  we  may  add  Chronicles,  Esdras,  and  Nehemiah,  which 
are  later. 

2.  Prophetical  Books. — Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  the  double 
Isaiah,  and  the  minor  prophets,  were  composed  in  the  second 
part  of  the  fourth,  and  in  the  course  of  the  third,  century. 

3.  Hagiographical. — The  Psalms,  Daniel,  and  other 
works,  were  composed  during  the  second  and  first  centuries. 

Retaining  the  apocalyptic  books,  especially,  in  this  third 
and  last  series,  we  have  framed  a  classification  of  the  books 
of  the  Bible  which  corresponds  to  the  history  of  Judaism,  and 
which  will  provide  the  main  divisions  of  our  inquiry : — 

The  Law  (books  of  Moses,  Joshua,  Judges,  Samuel,  and 
Kings). 

The  Prophets. 

The  Apocalypses. 


PAKT  FIEST 

THE    LAW 


Chapter  I. 

THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOKY 

Fourteen  centuries  before  the  Christian  era  opens  we 
find,  in  the  correspondence  of  certain  Egyptian  kings, 
which  we  have  discovered  at  El  Amarna,  Palestine 
described  as  divided  among  a  number  of  long-settled 
peoples,  and  we  read  of  the  recent  arrival  of  bands  of 
marauding  Bedouins. 

A  column  erected  by  an  Egyptian  king  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  later  mentions  Israel  among  these  peoples.  It 
is  the  first  reference  we  have  as  yet  to  the  name,  and  this 
first  indication,  marking  the  appearance  of  Israel  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  tells  at  the  same  time  of  its  first 
disaster.  "  Israalou  is  annihilated,"  says  the  column. 
It  is  an  announcement  of  the  destiny  of  that  extraordinary 
people,  unceasingly  shattered,  rising  again  unceasingly. 

Then  silence  falls  once  more  on  Palestine,  and  until 
about  the  year  1000  before  the  commencement  of  the 
present  era  we  have  nothing  to  supply  the  deficiency  but 
the  legends  incorporated  afterwards  in  the  sacred  writings 
of  Judaism. 

Who  were  these  populations  that  we  find  settled  on  the 
plains  of  southern  Syria  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
these  tribes,  hardly  advanced  beyond  the  nomadic  life, 
who  sought  a  place  among  them  ?  Whence  did  they 
come  ?  To  what  families  did  they  belong  ?  History  can 
only  reply  to  these  questions  by  hypotheses. 


2  THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTORY 

The  last  nomads  to  settle  in  the  country  seem  to  have 
come  from  the  deserts  of  the  south.  There  is  nothing 
improbable  in  the  supposition  that,  before  they  invaded 
Palestine,  these  hordes  of  formidable  Bedouins  had  for 
many  years  wandered  in  the  arid  peninsula  of  Sinai.  On 
issuing  from  the  pitiless  desert  they  had  found  in  Palestine 
a  country  watered  with  many  streams  and  shaded  with 
verdure,  a  vast  oasis,  in  which  they  were  disposed  to 
settle.  The  former  inhabitants  had  been  powerless  to 
repel  them.  They  were  hardly  able  to  maintain  their 
hold  in  the  most  strongly  fortified  of  their  small  towns ; 
while  the  nomads,  scattered  about  them,  reaped  their 
harvests,  plundered  their  caravans,  and  fought  with  each 
other.  After  a  long  period  of  guerilla  warfare  the 
invaders  succeeded  in  making  themselves  sole  masters  of 
the  territory  ;  and,  adopting  fixed  habitations,  they  slowly 
absorbed  what  was  left  of  the  primitive  population. 

We  have  no  reliable  document  to  throw  light  on  this 
obscure  origin.  We  can  but  hesitatingly  pronounce  a  few 
names  :  the  Ammonites  and  the  Moabites  to  the  east, 
the  Edomites  in  the  south,  the  Israelites  in  the  centre. 

They  no  longer  lived  under  the  shade  of  the  tent. 
Huts  of  earth  and  stone  now  lodged  them ;  and  they 
gradually  settled  in  the  older  towns,  which  they  took. 
The  soil  of  Palestine  was  suited  for  the  cultivation  of 
barley  and  wheat,  the  vine  and  the  fig,  as  well  as  for  the 
rearing  of  cattle.  The  olive  flourished  in  it,  and  honey 
was  plentiful.     The  pastoral  people  turned  to  agriculture. 

At  times  there  were  still  great  migrations.  Tribes  dis- 
placed each  other,  and,  crossing  the  entire  region,  went 
on  to  establish  themselves  more  strongly  in  a  different 
district,  or  to  seize  by  force  the  better  situated  or  better 
built  villages. 

The  memory  was  preserved  of  an  attempt  made  by  an 
Israelite  sheik,  named  Abimelech,  to  subdue  the  surround- 
ing population.  But  from  that  period  of  remote  bar- 
barism only  a  few  half-legendary  names  have  survived. 


THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY    3 

These  were  preserved  by  popular  traditions,  remains  of 
primitive  monuments,  and  very  ancient  customs,  for  the 
use  of  those  who,  at  a  later  date,  undertook  to  narrate  the 
past  of  the  Jewish  people.  This  was  what  is  called  the 
period  of  the  Judges. 

The  ethnographic  development  of  the  Israelites  cannot 
be  regarded  as  different  from  that  of  the  other  peoples  of 
western  Asia.  Struggling  in  obscure  savagery  for  exist- 
ence, entirely  resembling  the  neighbouring  groups,  just 
as  barbaric  as  they,  Israel  has  no  history  during  long 
centuries. 

On  every  side  of  the  Israelites  were  great  empires  that 
had  reached  the  height  of  their  civilisation  long  before. 
To  the  south-west  was  Egypt,  then  at  least  three  thousand 
years  old.  In  the  east  was  Babylonia,  still  older  than 
Egypt.  To  the  north-east  lay  Assur,  the  expansion  of 
which  dated  from  only  a  few  centuries  back  ;  in  the  north 
was  the  vast  feudal  empire  of  the  Hittites.  A  thousand 
years  earlier,  in  the  time  of  Hammurabi,  the  Babylonians 
had  brought  under  their  dominion  the  obscure  region 
which  was  one  day  to  be  known  as  Judaea.  The  Egyptians, 
the  Hittites,  and,  more  recently,  the  Assyrians,  had  come 
after  them,  and  Palestine  had  begun  to  be  a  route  between 
the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates.  Then  the  conquerors  had 
left  these  mountains  to  their  inhabitants,  and  had  dis- 
appeared since  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 
Egypt  was  spending  itself  in  internecine  warfare ;  the 
empires  of  the  Hittites  and  Assyrians  were  likewise  in 
decay.  But  these  successive  masters  had  brought  with 
them  a  certain  civilisation,  which  the  Israelites  had 
inherited  when  they  settled  in  the  country.  The  high 
culture  of  Babylonia  had,  as  in  the  whole  of  western  Asia, 
accomplished  its  work. 

It  was,  apparently,  a  little  before  the  year  1000  that 
the  attempt  which  Abimelech  had  made  in  vain  was 
successfully  repeated  by  Saul,  the  chief  of  the  Israelitic 
tribe  of  Benjamin.     A  number  of  guerilla  raids  were  made 


4    THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTORY 

on  the  formidable  and  menacing  populations  of  Philistia, 
and  Saul  was  able  to  extend  his  dominion  over  several 
tribes. 

The  chief  of  one  group,  David,  of  the  neighbouring 
tribe  of  Judah,  resumed  and  completed  the  work  of  Saul. 
He  seized  the  ancient  town  of  Jerusalem,  which  had  up 
to  that  time  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  early  inhabitants. 
Situated  on  the  height  of  the  Judaic  plateau,  in  the  most 
fertile  part  of  Palestine,  and  strongly  entrenched,  it  was 
made  his  capital.  He  rapidly  imposed  his  dominion  on 
all  the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  possibly  extended  it  to  the 
sister  tribes.  Amnion,  Moab,  and  Edom. 

First  bandit,  then  chief  of  tribes,  David  was  a  successful 
adventurer,  who  held  his  power  by  force  and  ability. 
His  successor,  Solomon,  seems  to  have  been  a  peaceful 
sultan,  with  a  taste  for  splendour,  w^ho  sought  to  make 
something  of  a  kingdom  out  of  the  confederation  of  rival 
tribes  subdued  by  his  father.  But  none  of  his  successors 
had  the  strength  or  the  ability  to  keep  the  elements 
together. 

If  a  fusion  had  been  possible  between  the  Israelites  of 
the  north  and  those  of  the  south,  between  the  various 
populations  of  Palestine,  the  history  of  the  east  might 
have  counted  one  more  empire  in  the  series  of  victorious 
and  fugitive  dominations  which  followed  each  other  in 
Asia  until  the  time  of  Alexander.  But  the  fusion  was 
not  accomplished,  and  the  work  of  Saul,  of  David,  and  of 
Solomon  had  no  sequel. 

It  is  well  known  that  at  the  death  of  Solomon  the 
northern  Israelites  formed  a  small  State,  which  was  called 
the  Kingdom  of  Ephraim,  and  that  the  southern  Israelites 
(Kingdom  of  Judah)  alone  remained  faithful  to  the  house 
of  David.  As  to  the  neighbouring  and  related  populations, 
they  rapidly  fell  away. 

At  this  point  the  word  "  Israel  "  loses  its  meaning  and 
its  use  in  the  life  of  the  peoples  of  Palestine.  The  name 
"Israelites"  had  been  that  of  a  certain  number  of  tribes 


THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY    5 

established  before  the  year  1000  in  southern  Syria.  Now 
these  tribes  are  gathered  into  two  distinct  groups,  the 
Ephraimitic  and  Judaic  kingdoms.  The  name  of  Israel 
is  about  to  pass  out  of  the  pages  of  history,  until  the  day 
when  it  will  be  revived  by  the  policy  of  Jerusalem.^ 

Chronoiogists  put  the  death  of  Solomon  in  the  year 
933.  From  that  date,  for  many  centuries,  the  story  of 
the  two  peoples,  Ephraim  and  Judah,  runs  its  obscure 
course. 

Like  all  small  oriental  courts,  the  primitive  and  rude 
palaces  of  the  kings  of  Judah  and  Ephraim  abound  in 
domestic  crimes.  Writing  is  hardly  known ;  the  arts  are 
primitive,  and,  to  build  their  royal  houses,  the  sultans  of 
Judah  bring  workmen  and  precious  material  from  the 
industrial  and  commercial  towns  of  Phoenicia,  and  pay  for 
them  in  market  produce. 

The  political  organisation  is  the  most  summary  of 
autocracies.  The  king  is  a  despot,  surrounded  by  a  small 
legion  of  janissaries,  who  guard  his  omnipotence ;  the 
officers  and  goveruors  are  slaves  of  the  monarch.  There 
is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  regular  taxation  or  fixed 
administration.  It  is  a  tyranny  of  the  most  barbaric 
character. 

Of  fixed  laws  there  is  not  a  shadow.  The  first  law  to 
be  promulgated  in  Judah  will  be  nearly  two  centuries 
after  the  fall  of  the  royalty.  Josias  did  not  promulgate 
any  legislation.  There  is  no  trace  of  codified  law  before 
the  time  of  Esdras.  The  one  rule  is  custom ;  its  sole 
corrective,  the  caprice  of  the  sultan. 

Of  the  religion  of  these  tribes,  from  whom  will  issue 
the  people  that  will  establish  Christianity  in  the  world, 
we  are  able  to  form  a  fairly  reliable  idea. 

In  all  probability,  the  Israelitic  tribes  had,  like  the 
Moabite,  Edomite,  and  Ammonite  tribes,  brought  with 
them   into  Palestine  the   patron-god  who  had,  from   the 

^  See  Appendix  I. 


6  THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY 

sacred  tent  in  which  he  dwelt,  protected  their  wandering 
across  the  desert.  Few  monuments  of  this  remote  period 
have  been  preserved  for  us,  and  the  Bible,  which  is  a 
precise  and  precious  document  for  the  beliefs  of  the  age 
in  which  it  was  composed,  gives  us  the  most  inaccurate 
information  on  earlier  times. 

We  may,  nevertheless,  conceive  that  in  the  course  of 
time,  as  the  former  Bedouins  of  the  desert  settled  on  the 
soil  of  Palestine,  the  god  of  each  of  their  tribes  had 
become  attached  to  the  land  to  which  the  tribe  was 
attached ;  and,  while  the  gods  of  the  earlier  populations 
fell  to  the  rank  of  inferior  divinities,  he  reigned  in  propor- 
tion to  the  reign  of  his  worshippers. 

All  the  tribes  had  substantially  the  same  religion.  Did 
they  all  adore  the  same  god  under  different  names  ?  Had 
they  different  gods'?  In  view  of  the  lack  of  precise 
mythologies,  history  can  tell  us  nothing  ;  but  the  only 
difference  it  has  yet  detected  between  the  various  gods  of 
the  southern  Syrians  is  a  mere  difference  of  name. 

Let  us  leave  to  specialists  the  discussion  of  the  religious 
origins  of  Judaism,  and  restrict  ourselves  to  the  better 
known  period  of  the  kings.  Each  of  the  little  Palestinian 
kingdoms  has  its  god.  Moab  adores  Camos;  Ammon 
adores  Milkom ;  Ephraim  and  Judah  adore  Jahveh.' 
These  deities  entirely  resemble  each  other,  and  all  are  fed 
with  the  fat  of  the  flocks ;  in  exceptionally  grave  circum- 
stances children  are  sacrificed  to  them. 

Each  of  these  deities  was  the  special  god  of  his  people, 
the  divine  patron  of  his  country.  Just  as  Jahveh  is  the 
god  of  Ephraim  and  Judah,  Milkom  is  the  god  of  the 
Ammonites  and  Camos  the  god  of  Moab.  It  must  not  be 
supposed  for  a  moment,  however,  that,  in  sacrificing  to 
their  own  god,  these  peoples  deny  the  god  of  their  neigh- 
bours. Judah  prays  to  Jahveh,  but  does  not  fail  to 
recognise  the  formidable  power  of  Dagon. 

'  The  form  "  Jahveh  "  seems  to  be  preferable  to  "Jehovah"  as  a  vocal 
expression  of  the  four  consonants  n^it^  which  make  up  the  divine  name. 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTORY         7 

One  day  the  kings  of  Samaria,  the  capital  of  Ephraim, 
and  of  Jerusalem,  the  capital  of  Judah,  set  out  to  make 
war  on  Mesa,  king  of  Moab.  What  does  Mesa  do  ?  He 
says  to  himself  that  perhaps  Jahveh,  the  protector  of 
Jerusalem  and  Samaria,  is  not  inaccessible  to  corruption ; 
and,  in  solemn  sacrifice,  he  offers  up  to  him  his  eldest 
son.  Jahveh,  won  by  the  sacrifice,  grants  him  the 
victory;  Jerusalem  and  Samaria  are  betrayed  by  their 
god,  and  vanquished.  So  we  read,  almost,  in  the  third 
chapter  of  the  second  book  of  Kings. 

The  protecting,  patronising,  territorial  god  is  in  effect 
a  national  god ;  and,  if  the  grandchildren  of  the  Israelites 
alone  deduce  the  full  consequences  from  the  idea  of  a 
national  Jahveh,  centuries  later,  it  is  nonetheless  true 
that  the  premises  were  common  to  all  the  inhabitants  of 
lower  Syria  from  the  tenth  to  the  sixth  century  before 
the  present  era.  Mesa,  king  of  Moab,  conqueror  of  his 
enemies  from  Ephraim  and  Judah,  could  thank  his  god 
Camos  (the  author  of  the  stele  has  made  no  mistake)  in 
the  very  same  terms  in  which  Ephraim  and  Judah  would 
have  congratulated  Jahveh,  if  they  had  won. 

We  must,  therefore,  conceive  the  history  of  the  Hebrew 
kingdoms  up  to  the  Deportation  in  the  same  way  as  that 
of  the  neighbouring  peoples ;  scientifically,  it  is  impossible 
to  conceive  it  otherwise.  Jahveh,  who  afterwards  became 
the  one  god  of  the  Jews,  the  Eternal  of  the  Christians, 
and  the  Absolute  of  the  philosophers,  cannot  have  been 

a  less  abominable  idol  than  Camos  or  Milkom Let  us 

try,  for  our  edification,  to  reconstruct  the  cult  of  Jahveh, 
from  the  tenth  to  the  sixth  century. 

At  the  summit  of  a  high  hill,  in  the  shade  of  a  vener- 
able and  verdant  tree,  is  a  large  flat  stone,  uncut,  on 
which  the  victims  are  immolated.  Before  the  altar  are 
two  emblems.  On  one  side  is  the  matsebah,  a  column  of 
stone  in  the  form  of  a  menhir ;  on  the  other  side  is  the 
asherah,  the  trunk  of  a  tree  which  has  taken  root  there 
and  had  its  branches  lopped  off,  or  the  trunk  of  a  tree 


8  THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTORY 

forced  into  the  soil.  Some  of  the  Semitic  gods,  such  as 
Bel  of  Phoenicia,  have  a  female  partner ;  but  most  of  them 
are  originally  hermaphroditic,  and,  at  some  unknown 
epoch,  the  lord  Jahveh  was  perhaps  of  this  number,  both 
male  and  female. 

To  these  rural  altars  the  families  bring  the  beasts 
destined  for  the  sacrifice.  A  sacrificial  priest  lives  close 
by.  At  their  call  he  approaches,  clad  in  a  white  tunic. 
He  begins  by  pouring  oil  and  wine  on  the  altar.  Then 
the  beast  is  brought  forward,  and  is  felled  and  dismem- 
bered by  one  skilful  stroke  of  his  knife.  The  pieces  are 
distributed.  The  priest  has  put  aside  those  which  custom 
assigns  to  himself ;  the  remainder  is  given  back  to  the 
pilgrims ;  and  from  the  fat,  which  is  set  afire,  the  portion 
of  Jahveh  rises  to  heaven  in  a  black  and  acrid  smoke. 
Jahveh  loves  fat,  says  the  Bible.  Then  they  all  take 
their  seats  at  the  table,  and  the  ceremony  ends  piously 
with  a  banquet,  at  which  the  head  of  the  family  presides. 

By  the  side  of  the  altar  of  sacrifice  is  the  tabernacle. 
There  the  image  of  the  god  dwells  and  gives  his  oracles. 

At  first  the  images  of  Jahveh  w^ere  manifold.  He  was 
adored  under  the  form  of  an  aerolith,  under  the  form  of 
a  precious  stone,  and  under  the  form  of  various  animals. 
It  is  well  known  that  at  Jerusalem  he  was  a  brazen 
serpent ;  in  Ephraim  he  was  a  young  golden  bull.  We 
speak  of  it  to-day  as  a  golden  calf,  because  we  have  in  our 
language  no  word  for  the  young  male  corresponding  to 
the  name  of  the  young  female,  heifer.  [Bullock  would 
be  the  more  correct  term  in  English.]  Jahveh  was  a 
young  bullock.     He  had  also  a  human  form. 

Nothing  of  importance  could  be  meditated,  either  in  the 
family  or  the  tribe,  without  consulting  Jahveh.  It  seems 
that  Jahveh  replied  with  a  "  yes  "  or  a  "no."  The  ephod 
was  a  small  formless  statue,  plated  with  gold,  representing 
a  human  appearance  of  the  god,  with  a  pocket,  in  which 
were  two  balls  of  different  colours.  One  of  these  balls 
meant  "yes,"  the  other  "no";  and  the  priest  drew  out 


THE  EARLY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY    9 

one  ball  in  giving  the  divine  answer.  The  tabernacle,  a 
kind  of  small  chapel  made  of  animal  skin  or  of  carpet,  but 
sometimes  built  of  stone,  sheltered  the  precious  statue  and, 
perhaps,  its  interpreter.  Not  far  away  was  the  vigilant 
sheik  of  the  village,  the  owner  of  the  sanctuary,  with  a 
troop  of  well-armed  servants.  A  consultation  of  the 
ephod  of  Jahveh  was  paid  for  in  ready  money,  and  was 
a  good  source  of  revenue.  Sometimes  a  neighbouring 
sheik  made  a  sudden  descent,  at  the  head  of  his  people, 
to  seize  the  god,  and  there  were  battles  waged  round  the 
profitable  idol.  There  were  even  cases — witness  the 
seventeenth  chapter  of  Judges — in  which  the  sheik  not 
only  stole  the  ephod,  but  enticed  away  its  priest. 

The  aron,  or  ark,  of  Jahveh  was  a  wooden  chest  in 
which  the  precious  stone,  or  the  aerolith,  was  kept,  and 
it  was  represented  as  the  dwelling  of  Jahveh,  During 
the  battles  of  different  peoples  the  ark  of  Jahveh  was 
brought  sometimes  into  the  midst  of  the  army,  so  that 
the  presence  of  the  god  might  lead  to  victory ;  but  at 
times — witness  the  fourth  chapter  of  Samuel — the  army 
was  nevertheless  defeated,  and  the  enemy  carried  off  the 
abode  of  the  vanquished  god  as  the  most  glorious  of 
trophies. 

The  sanctuaries  of  Jahveh  were  numerous.  What  we 
have  just  described  was  the  rural  "high-place."  In  the 
more  important  towns  the  sanctuaries  rose  to  the  position 
of  temples ;  but,  save  that  they  were  of  vaster  proportion, 
they  only  differed  from  the  little  provincial  sanctuaries  in 
being  enclosed  by  a  wall.  At  the  bottom  of  the  court 
was  the  tabernacle ;  in  front  of  the  tabernacle  was  the 
altar  of  sacrifice ;  and  on  either  side  were  the  phallic 
matsebah  and  the  accompanying  asherah.  Kound  the 
court  was  a  line  of  priests'  houses ;  and  near  by  was 
always  the  house  of  the  emir,  the  sheik,  or  the  sultan, 
the  sentinel  at  the  door  of  the  divine  patron.  Whether 
the  sanctuary  is  a  temple  or  a  simple  high-place,  it  is 
always  a  tabernacle  in  which  the  representation  of  the 


10        THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY 

god  dwells,  and  an  altar  on  which  cattle,  and  sometimes 
human  beings,  are  immolated. 

The  most  famous  temples  of  the  period  of  the  kings 
were  those  of  Jerusalem  and  Gabaon  in  Judah,  and  of 
Sichem,  Dan,  Bethel,  and  Silo  in  Ephraim.  In  the 
description  of  the  Jerusalem  temple,  which  is  given  in 
the  book  of  Kings,  we  must  not  seek  more  than  general 
and  very  summary  indications,  as  the  description  was 
composed  long  after  the  building  had  been  destroyed,  and 
with  the  view  of  depicting  an  ideal  type. 

The  proportions  of  the  structure,  the  richness  of  the 
materials,  the  number  of  the  priests,  and  the  splendour  of 
the  accessories,  distinguished  the  metropolitan  temples 
from  the  provincial  sanctuaries.  It  seems  even  that 
Solomon,  in  building  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  imitated 
the  magnificence  of  the  Phoenician  temples,  and  copied 
their  arrangement.  The  traditions  of  the  east  were  not 
less  observed  at  Jerusalem  than  at  Tyre  or  Sidon,  or  in 
the  capitals  of  Syria.  By  the  side  of  the  priests'  houses, 
round  the  central  court,  where  the  sacrifices  were  offered, 
there  were  the  chambers  of  the  sacred  courtesans.  Mas- 
culine, as  well  as  feminine,  prostitution  formed  part  of  the 
cult  of  Jahveh. 

What  was  the  further  development  of  beliefs  and 
religious  institutions  in  the  Hebrew  kingdoms  of  Ephraim 
and  Judah  ?  The  same  as  those  of  Moab,  of  Amnion,  of 
Edom,  or  of  any  of  the  neighbouring  peoples  of  Syria ; 
nor  is  it  possible  to  conceive  otherwise. 

Jahveh  was  the  god  of  Judah,  just  as  Camos  was  the 
god  of  Moab,  or  Milkom  the  god  of  Ammon,  and  conquest 
alone  could  dislodge  them.  The  older  Palestinian  cults, 
anterior  to  the  arrival  of  the  Israelitic  tribes,  had  assuredly 
not  wholly  disappeared ;  but,  as  we  said,  these  ancient 
divinities  only  survived  as  inferior  divinities.  In  each 
population  there  was  only  one  god  officially  adored,  the 
god  of  the  conquerors,  the  patron-god :  Jahveh  in  Israel, 
Camos  in  Moab,  Milkom  in  Ammon — each  in  his  own 


THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTORY         11 

home.  Syrian  princesses,  coming,  by  chance  alliance,  to 
reign  over  the  harems  of  the  Hebrew  kings,  may  have 
brought  with  them  the  image  of  their  national  god. 
Certain  kings  may,  to  please  a  favourite  sultana,  to  flatter 
their  Phoenician  ally  or  Ninevite  suzerain,  or  to  disarm 
the  anger  of  the  foreign  god,  have  set  up  altars  to  Bel  or 
Astarte  in  their  kingdoms.  That  is  not  only  possible,  but 
probable ;  yet  these  were  exceptional  occurrences,  and  the 
old  national  religion  was  never  altered.  An  altar  of 
Camos  at  Jerusalem  would  be  as  inconceivable  as  the 
German  flag  at  Paris. 

Why,  then,  did  the  Biblical  writers  afterwards  relate 
that  the  sanctuaries  of  Baal,  Moloch,   and  Astarte  had 
covered  the  land  of  Jahveh  ?     The  source  of  this  error — 
an  error  of  which,  as  we  shall  see,  the  policy  of  Jerusalem 
took   advantage — is   easy  to   trace.     The  word   king   is 
vielek    (moloch,  according   to    an  orthographical    corrup- 
tion) in  Hebrew ;   lord  is  baal.     Now,  the  titles  of  lord 
and    king   were    precisely   those   which     the    peoples    of 
Palestine  lavished  on  their  gods ;  throughout  the  whole 
of  Syria  it  was  customary  to  speak  of  the  local  god  as  the 
baal  or  the  moloch.     Like  their  neighbours,  the  Israelites 
of  Judah,  as  well  as  the  Israelites  of   Ephraim,  called 
Jahveh  their  baal  and  their  moloch ;  that  is  to  say,  their 
master  and  their  king.     When  the  practice  was  lost,  the 
biblical  writers,  who  were  at  times  great  poets,  but  always 
bad  linguists,  did  not  understand  that  this  baal  or  moloch 
was  Jahveh  himself,  and  they  imputed  to  their  ancestors, 
in    regard    to    the  Phoenician   Baal    and   the    Ammonite 
Moloch,    sins    of    apostasy    of    which    they    were   really 
innocent.     By  an  analogous  blunder  they  confused  the 
tree-trunk,  the  asherah,  with  the  Astarte  of  the  Phoeni- 
cians ;  and  the  Jewish  writers,  and  the  Christian  writers 
after   them,   said   that   the    idol    of   Astarte    was   raised, 
throughout  Israel,  by  the  side  of  the  matsebah  before  the 
altar  of  Jahveh.     Apart  from  a  few  chance  altars,  raised 
in    temporary   circumstances   to   foreign   divinities,    and 


12        THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY 

apart  from  the  survivals  of  ancient  pre-Israelitic  cults 
which  had  passed  to  the  condition  of  popular  superstitions 
(like  the  cult  of  certain  saints  in  our  own  time),  we  may 
affii-m  that,  on  the  contrary,  no  temple  could  be  conse- 
crated, either  in  Judah  or  Ephraim,  to  any  other  god  than 
the  god  of  Judah  and  Ephraim ;  any  more  than  an  altar 
could  be  raised  in  Moab  to  any  other  than  the  god  of 
Moab. 

When  we  have  thus  recalled,  amid  the  stony  mountains 
of  Palestine,  the  ancient  sanctuaries  of  Jerusalem,  Bethel, 
Silo,  Dan,  Sichem,  and  Gabaon,  with  their  stone  altars, 
their  tent-like  tabernacles,  their  viatsebah  and  asherah, 
and,  in  the  case  of  the  more  magnificent,  their  walls  of 
worn  masonry,  the  homes  of  their  priests,  and,  in  the 
case  of  those  which  affected  rivalry  with  the  Egypto- 
Phoenician  temples,  their  chambers  of  double  prostitution  ; 
when  we  have  pictured  to  ourselves  the  sheik  followed  by 
his  family,  the  lowly  shepherd  of  the  flock,  the  husband- 
man bound  to  the  soil,  clothed  in  their  white  mantles 
and  turbans,  leading  the  ox  or  the  ram  to  the  altar  of  the 
god,  or  coming  to  ask  of  the  ephod  some  news  of  the  ass 
they  have  lost,  or  some  counsel  as  to  the  coupling  of  their 
heifers  or  the  proper  season  to  sow ;  when,  in  the  midst 
of  a  frightful  combat,  we  have  seen  the  emir  take  the 
supreme  measure  of  sacrificing  his  son  as  a  holocaust  to 
the  anger  of  the  god,  we  have  nothing  further  to  do,  if 
we  would  exhaust  all  that  the  authentic  documents  can 
tell  us  of  this  remote  past,  of  three  thousand  years  ago, 
but  to  evoke  from  their  remote  obscurity  the  processions 
and  the  rejoicings  at  the  festivals  of  Jahveh,  which  we 
may  witness  to-day  in  this  unchanging  east. 

These  festivals  are  alike  over  the  whole  of  Palestine, 
and  their  order  is  dictated  by  the  natural  development  of 
the  rural  year.  First  we  have  the  spring,  when  the 
seedlings  begin  to  break  through  the  soil,  and  when  the 
mothers  of  the  flock  deliver.  Little  caravans  form  on  all 
sides  round  the  village,  and  bring  to  Jahveh — each  seeking 


THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  IIISTOEY         13 

the  nearest  sanctuary — the  first-fruits  of  the  field,  the 
first-born  of  the  flock. 

Then  it  is  harvest-time,  which  will  later  be  called  the 
Pentecost.  The  Israelites  pray  to  Jahveh  and  thank  him, 
v/ith  ripe  ears  of  corn  and  weaned  beasts,  with  the  offer 
of  young  bullocks,  of  yearling  lambs,  of  the  rams  whose 
odour  he  finds  pleasing.  During  this  time  no  servile 
work  is  done. 

Later  is  the  vintage  and  the  end  of  agricultural  labour. 
From  all  sides  the  caravans  rise  toward  the  sanctuary  of 
the  protecting  god.  Each  man  has  brought  the  fruit  of 
his  trees,  and  branches  of  palms  and  willows  from  the 
river-side,  and  for  several  days  they  rejoice  before  their 
god.  The  sky  is  serene,  the  nights  are  mild.  Round  the 
sanctuary,  at  the  summit  of  the  hill,  at  the  foot  of  the 
venerable  and  verdant  tree,  they  have  built  huts  of  foliage, 
the  shelter  of  a  few  days.  There  they  live,  and  eat  and 
drink,  and  celebrate  the  passing  of  the  year  and  the 
coming  repose  of  the  autumn.  It  is  the  feast  of 
Tabernacles,  the  feast  of  the  tents  of  foliage. 

What  can  literature  have  been  among  these  half- 
barbaric  peoples,  without  written  laws,  without  govern- 
ment, in  the  throes  of  perpetual  warfare,  interrupted  only 
by  the  common  cycle  of  annual  festivals,  and  with  this 
local  and  idolatrous  religion '? 

There  cannot  have  been  any  more  literature  in  Ephraim 
or  Judah  than  in  Moab,  or  in  any  of  the  neighbouring 
kingdoms.  Most  assuredly  there  cannot  have  been  more 
than  in  the  regions  of  higher  civilisation,  like  Phoenicia. 
And  this  literature  is  the  same  everywhere.  At  the  court 
of  each  of  the  petty  oriental  kings  an  historiographer 
recounts  the  high  deeds  of  the  master.  Among  the 
people  a  few  short  religious  chants,  not  written,  pass  from 
mouth  to  mouth.  There  are  legends,  finally,  epical 
narratives,  certain  familiar  stories,  which  the  elders  teach 
the  young,  and  which  pass  down  the  course  of  ages. 

The  legends,  the  chants,  the  annals  of   the    historio- 


14         THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTORY 

graphers  of  Moab,  Ammon,  and  Edom  have  been  lost  in 
the  melting  away  of  tribes  which,  once  they  had  been 
devastated,  were  unable  to  form  again  into  peoples.  On 
the  other  hand,  thanks  to  the  Restoration,  the  official 
annals,  certain  religious  songs,  and  a  few  ancient  legends 
remained,  after  the  confusion  of  the  Babylonian  captivity, 
in  the  memory  of  the  Jews  of  the  fifth  and  fourth 
centuries.  These  reminiscences  enabled  the  Jews  after- 
wards to  write  the  story  of  their  past.  But  what  was 
afterwards  made  of  this  historiography  and  these  legends 
must  not  deceive  us.  Neither  in  Judah  nor  in  Ephraim, 
any  more  than  in  Moab,  Ammon,  or  Edom,  can  we  seek, 
among  such  primitive  races,  anything  else  but  the  popular 
songs,  the  legends,  the  epic  stories,  which  we  find  at  the 
origin  of  all  civilisations.  We  must  not  imagine  that, 
beside  the  despotic  and  formidable  sultan,  there  was  any 
other  historian  than  the  servile  scribe  charged  to  leave  to 
his  successors,  in  lines  as  brief  as  those  of  an  inscription, 
the  memory  of  falsely  represented  exploits. 

Have  we  at  least  some  monument,  some  inscription, 
from  this  remote  epoch  ?  Have  we  found  a  single  stone 
of  the  harems  of  these  petty  monarchs,  their  citadels,  the 
ancient  sanctuaries,  the  stone  columns,  the  viatsebahs, 
the  triumphal  arches  ?  It  was  believed,  a  few  years  ago, 
that  Moab,  in  default  of  literature,  had  left  us  a  really 
ancient  monument  in  the  pillar  (stele)  of  its  king  Mesa. 
Unhappily,  the  famous  stele  seems  too  fine  to  be  genuine. 
Of  ancient  Hebraism  no  monument  of  the  slightest 
interest  has  come  down  to  us.  Apart  from  a  few  stones 
of  Jerusalem,  apart  from  what  the  future  may  discover  in 
the  deeper  soil  of  Palestine,  nothing  has  survived  the 
ages.  While,  in  Assyria,  Babylonia,  Susa,  and  Egypt, 
the  spade  of  the  explorer  has  brought  before  us  the  fallen 
empires,  with  glories  that  fill  us  with  amazement,  and 
disclose  to  us  the  marvellous  civilisations  they  had  in  the 
remotest  depths  of  history,  Judaea  has  as  yet  yielded  only 
a  miserable  past.     This  corner  of  the  east  lingered  in  the 


THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY         15 

primitive  state  which  is,  indeed,  no  longer  barbarism,  but 
is  hardly  civilisation ;  and  the  great  fortune  of  the  Jews, 
one  day  destined  to  spread  far  and  wide,  had  not  yet, 
even  in  the  seventh  century,  in  the  time  of  the  last  kings 
of  Judah,  begun  to  reveal  itself. 

No  history,  indeed,  is  more  pitifully  obscure  than  that 
of  the  petty  kings  of  Ephraim  and  Judah,  down  to  the 
day  when  they  were  swallowed  up  in  the  flood  of  the 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian  invasions.  After  the  death  of 
Solomon,  his  successors  in  Ephraim  and  Judah  had  worn 
themselves  out,  during  two  centuries,  in  warfare  with 
each  other  or  with  their  neighbours.  And  one  day  the 
countless  and  terrible  multitudes  of  the  Assyrians  appeared 
in  the  north  of  Palestine. 

The  kings  of  Nineveh  were  then  reconstructing  one  of 
those  vast  empires  which  had  successively  held  western 
Asia,  had  pushed  as  far  as  Egypt,  and,  passing  on  to 
Europe,  had  been  arrested  only  at  Marathon.  The 
Assyrian  troops  made  their  way  by  great  invasions, 
without  settling  anywhere.  They  passed  like  a  devour- 
ing wave,  ravaging  everything,  carrying  off  the  booty,  and 
massacring  the  population.  A  defeat  would  arrest  them 
for  a  few  years  ;  submission,  ransom,  the  paying  of  tribute, 
would  set  them  on  their  way  again.  Then  the  wave  came 
back  like  the  tide,  and,  sooner  or  later,  swept  over  the 
barriers.  The  kingdom  of  Ephraim,  situated  in  the  north, 
was  the  first  to  suffer.  The  ancient  historiographers  of 
Samaria,  and  the  writers  of  Kings  after  them,  have  left 
us  the  record  of  the  unequal  struggle  of  Ephraim  against 
the  northern  foe ;  and  the  cuneiform  monuments  found 
in  the  Assyrian  ruins  mention  the  misadventures  of  the 
petty  kings  of  the  land  of  Omri. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  two  centuries 
and  a-half  after  Solomon,  Salmanasar,  king  of  Nineveh, 
took  Samaria,  and  bore  away  in  captivity  the  king  and  the 
chief  inhabitants  of  Ephraim.  The  northern  kingdom  had 
ceased  to  exist. 


16        ■  THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY 

Jerusalem,  more  sheltered,  in  a  stronger  situation  on  its 
hill,  resisted  the  Assyrians.  History  tells  that  Sancherib, 
the  successor  of  Salmanasar,  had  come  to  lay  siege  to 
Jerusalem,  where  the  pious  king  Ezekias  reigned,  and 
that  the  angel  of  Jahveh  went  forth  one  night,  and  smote 
a  hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand  men  in  the  Assyrian 
camp ;  so  that,  when  the  Hebrews  arose  in  the  morning, 
they  found  the  enemy  slain.  But  the  angel  of  Jahveh 
intervened  too  rarely,  and  the  little  kingdom  of  Judah 
(about  the  size  of  Corsica)  only  lived  from  that  day  in  a 
death-agony. 

War  was  being  waged  between  Nineveh  and  Egypt,  and 
the  land  of  Judah  was  the  line  of  march  and  the  field  of 
battle.  Over  it  passed  the  hostile  armies,  with  which  no 
neutrality  was  possible.  After  a  hundred  years  of  guerilla 
fighting  in  the  mountains,  of  submission,  revolt,  and 
desolation,  the  poor  people  found  itself  reduced  to  one 
strong  town,  Jerusalem,  perpetually  besieged  and  ran- 
somed, with  its  surrounding  country  eternally  devastated. 

Babylon  had  displaced  Nineveh  ;  the  formidable  empire 
of  Assyria  had  fallen ;  the  Chaldaean  armies  of  Babylon 
passed  in  turn  across  western  Asia.  After  resisting  the 
Assyrians  so  long,  the  Jerusalemites  were  about  to  yield 
to  the  unceasing  attack  of  the  Chaldseans.  We  have 
reached  the  time  of  Nabuchodonosor.  The  virulent 
poetry  attributed  to  Jeremiah  has  immortalised  the  last 
years  of  the  descendants  of  David ;  but,  from  party  spirit, 
it  has  perverted  the  truth. 

It  is  very  difficult  for  us  to  conceive  the  last  years  of 
ancient  Jerusalem,  with  its  Josias,  Joachim,  and  Sedecias, 
as  the  chastisement  of  a  people  punished  by  a  jealous  god 
for  falling  from  its  earlier  virtue,  or  to  see  in  them  any- 
thing else  than  the  bloody  and  terrible  resistance  of  a 
small  agricultural  and  pastoral  population,  who  have  been 
devastated  and  have  taken  shelter  behind  the  walls  of  the 
citadel,  where  the  emir  dwells,  in  the  shadow  of  the  chief 
sanctuary  of  their  god.     It  is  a  savage  struggle,  and  the 


THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY         17 

end  of  it  must  be  either  an  improbable  victory  or  destruc- 
tion. 

Jerusalem  had,  four  centuries  earlier,  under  the  bold 
and  astute  David,  almost  become  the  centre  round  which 
might  gather  all  these  small  populations,  of  like  customs 
and  the  same  language  and  religion,  to  form  a  kingdom  of 
the  southern  Syrians,  masters  of  the  route  between  Egypt 
and  Asia,  with  every  prospect  of  vanquishing  the  Phoeni- 
cian ports,  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  open  west.  Israel 
fell  short  of  this  destiny  ;  a  more  extraordinary  future 
was  reserved  for  it.  These  tribes,  nomads  but  a  short 
time  before,  hardly  emerged  from  barbarism  in  the  sixth 
century,  wore  themselves  out  in  unceasing  intestine  war ; 
and  their  petty  sultans,  cruel  and  knavish  as  are  all 
oriental  despots,  could  only  pillage,  betray,  and  massacre 
each  other,  while  the  formidable  power  of  the  great 
military  dominations  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon  increased 
beside  them. 

In  588  Jerusalem  is  taken  by  storm  by  the  troops  of 
Nabuchodonosor.  The  king  Sedecias,  after  seeing  his 
sons  slaughtered,  has  his  eyes  put  out ;  bound  in  bronze 
chains,  he  is  carried  off  to  Babylon  with  the  chief  men  of 
the  town.     The  house  of  Jahveh  is  burned  down. 

The  kingdom  of  Judah  is  destroyed ;  the  kingdom  of 
Ephraim  has  disappeared  a  century  and  a-half  before ; 
Moab,  Ammon,  and  Edom,  their  brothers,  successively 
melt  away.  Syria  is  conquered.  There  is  no  longer  a 
Philistia  ;  Tyre  alone  holds  out  on  its  island.  The  whole 
of  Palestine  is  thrown  into  confusion.  The  Chaldaeans  of 
Babylon  use  it  as  the  Assyrians  of  Nineveh  had  done. 
When  they  have  conquered  a  land,  they  begin  by  carrying 
off  all  that  is  portable  in  gold,  bronze,  and  precious 
objects.  Then  they  burn  down  the  buildings  and  destroy 
the  walls.  They  massacre  all  who  resist,  and  divide  those 
who  submit  into  two  groups :  the  chiefs,  whom  they  bear 
away  into  captivity,  and  the  common  folk,  whom  they 
leave,  with  the   charge  of  paying   tribute,  on  a  land  of 

c 


18        THE  EAELY  DAYS  OF  JEWISH  HISTOEY 

smoking  ruins,  of  desolation,  of  long  infertility.  It  is  all 
over  then  with  Judah,  as  with  Ephraim,  and  Moab,  and 
Edom,  and  Amnion.  The  Hebrew  people  has  perished, 
and  it  has  perished  without  leaving  any  memorial — 
neither  in  history,  nor  art,  nor  legislation,  nor  literature, 
nor  religion.  It  has  perished  like  the  most  obscure  of 
these  rough  tribes  of  western  Asia.  But  from  this  people 
which  has  done  nothing  there  will  now  come  sons  who 
will  do  everything. 


Chapter  II. 
ESDRAS 

§  1,  The  Beginning. 

The  history  of  the  Jews  begins  in  588. 

Jerusalem,  which  has  never  been  more  than  a  small 
and  obscm'e  town,  is  now  a  heap  of  ruins.  On  every  side 
the  surrounding  country  is  laid  waste.  Nothing  is  seen 
in  it  but  bands  of  marauding  Bedouins.  The  soil  is 
cultivated  no  longer ;  there  are  now  no  flocks.  The 
sheiks  and  leading  men  have  been  massacred  or  borne 
away.  There  remains  only  a  miserable  gathering  of  the 
poorer  folk. 

The  years  pass  slowly  by. 

Some  measure  of  peace  has  been  recovered,  however. 
People  endeavour  to  rebuild  their  dilapidated  huts.  To 
restore  the  walls  of  the  town  is  out  of  the  question.  They 
seek  to  draw  closer  to  and  help  each  other  amidst  the 
general  desolation,  but  they  have  no  resources,  no  means 
of  defence,  and,  apparently,  no  energy.  In  the  half-peace 
which  ensues  upon  great  disasters,  they  return  somewhat 
toward  the  primitive  savagery. 

Still  the  years  pass  by. 

These  plains  of  southern  Syria  have  become  a  desert 
where  one  no  longer  dare  put  flocks  to  graze,  where  it  is 
fruitless  to  till  the  soil,  where  the  olive  and  the  fig  are 
blighted,  and  no  one  seeks  to  restore  them.  In  the 
general  insecurity  what  remains  of  life  gathers  instinc- 
tively round  the  old  town,  where  it  is  easier  to  defend 
oneself  against  the  marauders,  and  the  nearness  of  neigh- 
bours gives  one  a  feeling  of  confidence.  Jerusalem  has 
remain  a  small  centre,  like  Samaria.  In  and  around 
Jerusalem,    in    spite    of    the    demolished    walls    and    the 

19 


20:  ESDEAS 

blackened  sanctuaries,  there  are  some  signs  of  sluggish 
life.     Two  generations  pass  in  this  wise. 

Suddenly,  in  the  year  538,  it  is  said  that  strange  armies 
have  arrived  from  the  distant  heart  of  Persia,  that  they 
have  gathered  on  all  sides  round  invincible  Babylon,  and 
that  one  night,  while  the  emperor  Balthasar  held  festival 
with  his  courtesans,  they  swarmed  to  the  assault  of  the 
impregnable  capital ;  that  Babylon  has  fallen  and  its 
terrible  empire  is  over.  A  new  people  is  master  of  the 
world ;  a  new  emperor  reigns,  Cyrus.  Emissaries,  with 
armed  cohorts  to  support  them,  go  out  to  every  part  of 
Asia.  It  is  said  that  the  new  people  is  strong,  but  not 
cruel ;  that  the  new  emperor  lets  every  man  live  at  his 
own  fireside,  worship  his  own  god,  tend  his  vine,  lead  out 
his  flock  to  pasture,  and  do  his  business  in  peace  in  the 
markets  of  the  large  towns,  under  the  shadow  of  his 
formidable,  but  protective,  power. 

It  is  difficult  to  say,  in  the  present  state  of  science,  if 
the  Persian  domination  and  the  government  of  Cyrus 
were  at  the  start  as  peaceful  as  the  flattering  historians 
would  have  us  believe.  It  seems  clear,  at  least,  that  the 
Persians  acted  differently  from  the  Assyrians  and  Chal- 
daeans.  The  latter  had  been  ruthless  conquerors,  indifferent 
to  organisation ;  the  Persians  sought  from  the  first  to 
organise  their  empire.  The  Persians  were  a  great 
aristocratic  nation,  of  strong  government,  with  severe 
morals  and  religion,  far  removed  from  barbarism,  with 
laws  and  agriculture.  Their  powerful  military  organisa- 
tion, instead  of  pressing  toward  savagery,  maintained 
discipline.  Their  Aryan  spirit  showed  itself  in  a  craving 
for  government,  a  leaning  to  administration,  a  feeling  of 
the  need  of  order ;  so  that,  at  the  time  when  they  were 
leading  their  armies  across  Asia,  Cyrus,  Cambyses,  and 
Darius  were  writing  edicts,  appointing  satraps,  maintain- 
ing an  interchange  of  couriers  with  each  of  them,  holding 
the  final  court  of  justice,  and  governing. 

The   Jewish   historians   relate,   with   improbability   of 


THE  BEGINNING  21 

detail,  that,  as  soon  as  Cyrus  had  taken  Babylon,  he 
allowed  the  descendants  of  the  Judaites,  who  had  been 
brought  into  captivity  by  Nabuchodonosor,  to  return  to 
their  country,  rebuild  their  town,  and  restore  their  temple. 
They  assert  that  the  first  caravan  left  Babylon  under  the 
guidance  of  Zorobabel,  and  returned  to  Jerusalem ;  and 
that  then,  nearly  a  century  later,  in  458,  Esdras  in  turn 
led  back  a  group  of  exiles  to  their  country.  They  give 
the  names  of  the  heads  of  families,  count  the  caravans, 
and  relate  the  most  precise  details  about  the  two 
migrations. 

Historical  criticism  retains  only  a  few  facts  out  of 
these  accounts.  The  Eestoration  was  the  work  of  the 
Jerusalemites  who  had  remained  in  and  around  the 
town,  rather  than  of  the  descendants  of  the  exiles  of  588. 

The  descendants  of  the  Jerusalemites  who  had  been 
exiled  to  Babylon  had  definitely  settled  there.  It  is  likely 
enough  that  exiles  who  found  the  doors  of  their  country 
re-opened  after  fifteen,  twenty,  or  even  thirty  years  of 
captivity  would  be  eager  to  return  to  their  homes.  But 
by  the  time  of  Cyrus  it  was  already  more  than  fifty,  and 
even  sixty,  years  since  the  deportation  (as  the  great 
deportation  of  588  had  been  preceded  by  another  in  599). 
Two  generations  had  passed  away,  and  they  had  settled 
in  the  land  of  exile.  At  the  time  of  the  supposed  return 
of  Esdras  a  hundred  and  thirty,  or  a  hundred  and  forty, 
years  had  elapsed  since  the  deportation.  There  was  no 
longer  question  of  returning  to  Jerusalem.  They  were 
in  Babylon,  and  would  remain  there.  "  Captivity  "is  an 
incorrect  word,  and  has  done  much  to  put  a  false  com- 
plexion on  their  history.  There  was  no  captivity  or 
slavery.  They  had  been  forcibly  transferred  to  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates,  but  had  settled  there,  and  now  lived 
there  in  freedom.  Though  the  Babylonian  deportation 
had  been  compulsory,  it  proved  to  be  merely  the  first  of 
the  countless  emigrations  by  which  the  Jews  were  after- 
wards to  fill  the  world.     The  Babylonian  colony,  the  first 


22  ESDKAS 

of  the  Jewish  colonies,  remained,  grew,  and  lasted  for 
centuries. 

That  a  small  number  of  the  Judaites  returned  to 
Palestine  in  the  time  of  Cyrus  is  quite  possible  ;  but  we 
must  seek  the  restorers,  or,  rather,  the  founders,  of  the 
Jewish  nation  amid  the  miserable  population  which 
remained  in  the  country.  The  Persian  domination,  suc- 
ceeding the  Chaldaean  domination,  gave  the  Judaites  who 
remained  in  their  home  the  chance  of  restoring  and 
organising.  It  seems  that  the  world  began  to  breathe 
once  more,  after  the  Babylonian  oppression ;  in  Palestine, 
as  everywhere  else,  if  a  spark  of  life  remained  in  the 
breast,  it  was  now  possible  to  rise  again.  But  nothing 
was  more  lowly,  and  nothing  is  more  obscure,  than  the 
beginning  of  this  resurrection. 

The  first  known  act  of  the  story  is  the  restoration  of 
the  temple  of  Jahveh,  which  is  attributed  to  Zorobabel. 
However  modest  this  reconstruction  of  the  temple  may 
have  been,  it  is  the  first  stirring  of  the  soul  of  Jerusalem. 
As  long  as  there  was  no  temple  there  was  nothing  but  a 
stricken  population,  scattered  over  a  land  of  ruin.  The 
temple  means  that  Jahveh  has  returned  to  his  land,  and 
that  there  is  once  more  a  god  at  Jerusalem. 

Years  passed  by  after  the  reconstruction  of  the  temple. 
Jerusalem  had  remained  dismantled  since  588 ;  and,  at 
this  period  in  the  east,  an  open  town  was  an  easy  prey  to 
the  attacks  of  neighbours  and  nomads.  The  Biblical 
writers  narrate  that  a  Jew  of  the  name  of  Nehemiah,  who 
held  the  office  of  cup-bearer  to  the  emperor  Artaxerxes, 
obtained  from  his  master,  and  brought  to  Jerusalem, 
permission  to  rebuild  the  walls.  There  were  frightful 
difficulties.  The  workers,  as  they  built,  had  the  trowel 
in  one  hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other.  It  seems  that 
the  work  was  completed  less  than  a  hundred  years  after 
Cyrus,  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century. 

With  temple  and  walls  Jerusalem  became  a  town. 
With  the  narrow  strip  of  country  immediately  around  it. 


THE  BEGINNING  23 

the  town  became  what  we  should  call  a  small  territorial 
unity,  and  provided  the  conditions  which  were  necessary 
for  life  and  prosperity. 

Jerusalem  and  its  outskirts  were  typical  of  the  organi- 
sation which  the  Persian  government  sought  to  promote 
in  the  immense  agglomeration  of  peoples  under  its  yoke. 
The  Persian  government  expressly  restored  life  to  the 
small  States,  the  agricultural  populations,  the  cities  girt 
about  with  countryside,  all  the  little  territorial  unities. 
A  large  State  would  have  been  a  great  danger ;  very  small 
States  were  preferable  in  the  confederation  which  made 
up  the  new  empire.  The  policy  of  the  Persian  emperors 
aimed  at  the  development  of  the  small  States  and  preventing 
the  formation  of  large  ones.  In  one  of  the  chief  towns  of 
Syria  resided  a  satrap,  with  an  army,  who  governed  the 
Syro-Palestinian  region.  He  had  a  lieutenant  and  some 
troops  in  each  town,  and  his  work  consisted  in  maintaining 
order  and  receiving  the  tribute.  Provided  it  paid  the 
tribute  and  there  was  no  disorder,  each  town  and  each 
group  of  towns,  each  petty  State,  did  what  it  pleased. 

Was  there  a  restoration  in  the  other  cities  of  Palestine 
like  that  of  the  capital  of  the  former  kingdom  of  Judah  ? 
Did  the  earlier  kingdom  of  Ephraim  witness  a  revival  of 
Samaria?  Had  Moab,  Edom,  and  Ammon  the  same 
good  fortune  ?  Did  the  old  cities  and  centres  of  Syria, 
devastated  in  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  conquests, 
return  to  life  ?  Certainly.  But  the  history  of  these 
peoples  is  almost  unknown.  Even  the  history  of  Jeru- 
salem, in  spite  of  the  brilliance  of  its  later  development, 
is  full  of  obscurity  until  the  second  century ;  it  is  the 
more  natural  that  we  should  know  little  of  the  destiny  of 
the  unhappy  neighbours  who  never  attained  distinction. 
It  is,  however,  certain  that  under  the  dominion  of  Persia 
there  was,  from  end  to  end  of  Palestine,  a  re-awakening 
— I  had  rather  say  an  awakening — of  these  stricken  popu- 
lations. At  Samaria  as  well  as  Jerusalem,  in  the  capitals 
of  Moab,  Edom,  and  Ammon,  in  certain  towns  of  Philistia, 


24  ESDKAS 

at   Damas,    there   was   an   organisation    not   unlike   the 
development  of  the  burgher-cities  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

In  the  midst  of  these  petty  States,  and  not  differing 
from  them  in  origin,  the  little  State  of  Jerusalem  is 
destined  to  grow  and  develop.  It  is  the  story  of  this 
little  State,  similar  at  first  to  the  story  of  the  surrounding 
States,  that  we  have  henceforth  to  follow.  The  inhabitants 
of  Jerusalem  now  call  themselves  by  a  new  name,  the 
"Jews."  The  word  "Jew"  is  a  corruption  of  the  older 
"  Judaean ";  but  a  new  name  characterises  a  new  fact. 
Formerly  there  was  a  kingdom  of  Judah ;  now  there  is 
a  Jewish  people.  The  name  "  Jew  "  is  born  in  history. 
Instead  of  the  little  kingdoms  which  divided  southern 
Syria  between  them  before  the  sixth  century,  there  have 
appeared  a  multitude  of  tiny,  independent  States,  under 
the  common  hegemony  of  the  Persian  emperor,  not  larger, 
at  the  most,  than  one  or  two  counties.  Jerusalem  is  one 
among  this  mass  of  rival  cities,  which  are  irremediably 
lost  to  us  in  the  night  of  a  dead  past.  It  has  its  thousands 
of  acres  of  pasturage  and  crops  around  it,  and  at  this  date 
vegetates  miserably,  like  in  all  respects  to  the  obscure 
cities  about  it ;  yet  its  name  will  one  day  stand  high  in 
the  world's  annals.  We  saw  in  the  first  chapter  that  the 
story  of  the  earlier  kingdom  of  Judah  was  the  same  as 
that  of  neighbouring  peoples ;  we  shall  see  in  the  history 
of  the  Jewish  people  something  wholly  special,  extra- 
ordinary, unique.  Did  something  happen  at  Jerusalem, 
then,  during  the  fifth  century,  which  could  not  happen  in 
the  rival  cities  of  Palestine  ?  All  the  evidence  is  against 
it.  But  from  the  common  circumstances  of  all  these 
cities  and  all  these  peoples  of  Palestine  one  people  alone 
was  able  to  develop  the  logical  consequences.  They  had 
a  common  origin,  a  common  beginning ;  but  everywhere 
else  was  abortion — at  Jerusalem  alone  we  find  a  con- 
tinuous development  to  the  higher  stage.  Of  different 
children  of  the  same  parents  one  only  becomes  a  Napoleon ; 
the  others  remain  Jerome,  Joseph,  or  Lucien. 


THE  BEGINNING  25 

For  twenty  centuries  the  Jewish  and  Christian  ortho- 
doxies have  taught  that  the  destiny  of  Israel  can  only  be 
interpreted  as  a  prolonged  miracle.  History  will  simply 
say  that  the  development  of  the  Jewish  State,  among  the 
other  States  of  Palestine,  has  been  a  similar  success  to 
the  development  of  the  Athenian  republic  among  the 
republics  of  Hellas,  or  to  the  even  more  extraordinary 
development  of  Rome  among  the  cities  of  Italy. 

What  is  the  Jewish  people  in  its  beginning  ?  A  few 
miserable  shepherds  or  husbandmen,  a  few  lowly  artisans 
and  poor  folk  without  chiefs,  who  have  gathered  round 
the  ruins  of  a  dismantled  city,  three  parts  destroyed  by 
fire,  from  the  terror  of  looting  hordes  and  hostile  neigh- 
bours. Then,  when  a  better  age  begins  and  a  great  peace 
fills  the  world,  the  little  town  is  gradually  rebuilt,  the 
temple  of  its  national  god  restored,  its  walls  raised  once 
more  in  spite  of  a  thousand  difficulties,  and  some  security 
is  provided  for  its  inhabitants  and  its  outskirts.  We  are 
now  in  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century.  There  is  still  no 
organisation,  no  written  law,  at  Jerusalem.  The  town, 
except  for  its  modest  temple  and  perhaps  a  few  houses,  is 
no  more  than  a  cluster  of  huts  with  an  encircling  wall. 
There  is  no  civilisation ;  it  is  the  dubious  age  when  a 
people  barely  begins  to  exist.  Savagery  and  misery  lie  at 
the  gates.  It  is  much  the  same  with  Samaria,  the  old 
capital  of  Ephraim,  with  the  sacred  towns  of  Bethel  and 
Silo,  and  with  the  small  Syrian  towns,  the  towns  of  Moab, 
Amnion,  Edom,  and  Philistia.  Jerusalem,  for  all  its 
temple  and  its  walls,  remains  a  humble  city  of  Palestine. 

It  is  at  this  moment  that  the  evolution  commences 
from  which  Christianity  will  issue.  The  date  is  fixed  by 
the  name  of  Esdras.^ 

The  story  of  Esdras,  as  we  read  it  in  the  book  which 
bears  his  name  in  the  Bible,  is,  like  almost  all  the  Biblical 
stories,  a  doctrinal  legend ;  that  is  to  say,  a  legend  with 
the  purpose  of  establishing  a  religious  dogma.     Criticism 

^  See  Appendix  II. 


26  ESDEAS 

can  glean  only  two  or  three  facts  from  it,  and  the  greatest 
obscurity  surrounds  the  person,  and  even  the  age,  of  Esdras. 
Was  he  the  man  of  genius  who  first  organised  the  popu- 
lation of  Jerusalem '?  Was  he  the  head  of  a  school  of 
reformers '?  Is  his  name  merely  the  symbol  which  con- 
ceals a  popular  movement,  or  the  geographical  expression 
which  denotes  a  group '?  It  is  supposed  that  Esdras  was 
a  real  personage,  a  priest  of  Jahveh ;  that  he,  in  par- 
ticular, forbade  the  Jerusalemites  to  have  foreign  wives, 
and  that  he  came  after  Nehemiah.  But  if  his  personality 
is,  and  must  apparently  remain,  shrouded  in  irremovable 
obscurity,  the  work  done,  whether  it  was  the  work  of  one 
(as  is  the  more  probable)  or  of  many,  or,  better  still,  the 
collective  work  of  the  nation,  is  clear  and  intelligible.  It 
is  the  first  affirmation  of  the  nationalism  which  was  the 
point  of  departure  of  Judaism. 

When  the  men  of  Jerusalem  had  rebuilt  the  temple  of 
their  god  and  restored  their  walls,  it  seems  that,  instead  of 
slumbering  in  their  comparative  security,  they  went  on  to 
give  a  profound  consideration  to  their  situation,  their  past, 
and  their  future ;  and  that  this  profound  meditation  laid 
the  foundation  of  their  fortune.  The  other  peoples  round 
about  them,  Samaria,  Moab,  and  Edom,  similarly  situated, 
did  not  rise  above  the  needs  of  daily  existence.  It  seems 
that  the  men  of  Jerusalem  stopped  to  reflect,  and  interro- 
gated their  destiny.  The  others,  accepting  the  lot  which 
chance  dealt  out  to  them,  were  content  to  live.  The  men 
of  Jerusalem  trembled  for  themselves  ;  they  dwelt  on  the 
two  long  centuries,  the  horrors  of  which  were  barely  over. 
This  little  population,  restricted  to  the  few  acres  which 
lay  between  the  Cedron  and  the  valley  of  Ben-Himmon, 
shuddered  to  find  itself  conquered,  isolated,  and  so  weak, 
and  it  reflected  anxiously  on  its  past.  With  the  terrible 
memories  of  ruin  and  deportation,  with  the  painful  recol- 
lection of  the  slow  and  burdensome  restoration,  they 
contrasted  the  memory  of  their  earlier  glories.  Among 
the  older  folk  one  still  heard  tell  of  the  former  greatness 


THE  BEGINNING  27 

of  the  nation's  heroes,  the  victories  of  David,  and  the 
splendour  of  Solomon.  They  dreamed  of  the  old  Davidic 
kingdom,  and  in  exaggeration  made  it  stretch  from  the 
desert  to  the  great  sea.  They  told  marvellous  tales  of  the 
temple  so  magnificently  built  by  Solomon,  and  contrasted 
with  it  the  poor  edifice  of  Zorobabel.  While  other  nations 
drowsily  accepted  things  as  they  were,  the  men  of  Jeru- 
salem asked  themselves  why  this  thing  had  happened  to 
them,  and  why  that ;  why  this  former  grandeur  and  why 
the  fall.  They  could  not  reconcile  themselves  to  the 
thought  that  they  had  once  been  great,  and  were  now 
miserable,  unless  it  were  for  some  extraordinary  reason. 
They  put  themselves  the  fateful  question.  Why,  which  is 
the  root  of  all  resurgence. 

The  naive  theology  of  the  tenth,  the  eighth,  and  even 
the  sixth  century,  taught  that  the  victories  of  nations  were 
the  victories  of  their  protecting  gods,  and  their  defeats  a 
defeat  of  the  god.  A  victory  effaced  a  defeat.  Jahveh, 
once  beaten  under  Achaz,  had  had  his  revenge  under 
Ezekias.  It  was  a  very  natural  idea  in  the  turmoil  of 
brigandage,  sometimes  profitable,  sometimes  a  failure, 
among  the  ancient  populations  of  Palestine.  But  the 
frightful  events  which  had  ensued,  the  Chaldaean  invasion, 
the  ruin  and  exile,  had  definitely  brought  these  tribes  into 
subjection,  and  had  meant  the  defeat  of  their  gods.  And 
each  people  continued,  as  before  the  Babylonian  conquest, 
to  honour  its  own  god.  Moab  worshipped  Camos,  Amnion 
worshipped  Milkom.  In  the  same  way  Jahveh  reigned  at 
Jerusalem.  Just  as  Camos  was  the  territorial  god  of 
Moab,  Jahveh  remained  the  territorial  god  of  Judah. 
Nevertheless,  while  the  neighbouring  peoples  acknow- 
ledged the  defeat  of  their  gods,  the  men  of  Jerusalem 
proclaimed  that  their  god  had  not  been  conquered.  On 
the  very  morrow  of  the  Babylonian  deportation,  under 
the  ignominy  of  the  Persian  domination,  they  declared 
that  Jahveh  was  the  terrible  master  who  had  thought  fit 
to  chastise  his  people,  and  now  thought  fit  to  restore  it. 


28  ESDRAS 

They  afi&rmed  that  their  disasters  and  their  ruin  and 
oppression  were  the  work  of  their  national  god  himself. 

In  appearance,  there  was  no  change  of  the  old  traditions 
in  the  Palestine  of  the  fifth  century ;  but  in  reality  the 
whole  soul  was  revolutionised  in  the  men  of  Jerusalem. 
While  the  others  thought  it  enough  to  cultivate  the 
protecting  deity,  who  sent  the  sun  and  the  dew,  the  men 
of  Jerusalem  put  their  own  despair,  anxiety,  and  pride 
into  the  terrible  soul  which  they  gave  to  Jahveh.  It  was 
a  prodigious  effort  of  a  few  heroic  men.  The  other  gods 
had  become  poor  secondary  deities,  oppressed  with  their 
people,  now,  under  the  Persian  hegemony,  ruling  only  the 
small  happenings  of  their  little  towns.  The  men  of 
Jerusalem  had  the  boldness  to  proclaim  that  their  god 
had  triumphed,  that  he  had  deliberately  allowed  the 
dovnifall  of  his  people,  and  that  he  now  willed  its 
restoration.  Jahveh  was  no  longer  a  mere  territorial 
god,  sitting  in  the  ark,  a  lover  of  fat.  He  appeared  to 
Esdras,  to  the  Esdras  group,  in  the  agony  of  their 
humiliation,  as  the  terrible  master  who  had  done  every- 
thing. 

Why  had  Jahveh  willed  these  abominable  things — the 
burning  of  his  temple,  the  destruction  of  his  town,  the 
dispersal  of  his  people,  and  the  desolation  of  his  land 
during  two  hundred  years '? 

As  a  stricken  soul,  which  has  felt  the  throes  of  agony, 
is  determined  to  learn  the  cause  of  its  misfortune,  and,  if 
it  is  to  live  again,  absolutely  needs  to  know  why  it  came 
so  near  death,  so  the  Esdras  group  invented  the  only 
answer  which  seemed  fit  to  reassure  its  life. 

This  answer  had  to  be  the  powerful  stimulant  which 
would  restore  the  patriotism  of  the  people,  and  exalt  that 
patriotism  into  the  most  sombre  fanaticism.  The  men 
of  Jerusalem  must  be  united  in  a  savage  love  of  their 
city.  Patriotism  must  in  future  fill  every  heart  until 
there  is  no  place  for  any  other  feeling.  The  love  of 
Jerusalem,  their  country,  must  flash  forth  in  the  depths 


THE  BEGINNING  29 

of  their  souls  so  vividly  that  for  ages  to  come  its  walls 
vi^ill  need  no  other  light. 

What  wsbs  there,  then,  among  these  peoples  of  southern 
Syria  to  correspond  to  what  we  now  call  our  country  ? 
At  Jerusalem  this  thing  was  Jahveh  ;  in  Moab  men  called 
it  Camos ;  in  Ammon  it  was  Milkom ;  in  Tyre,  Bel  and 
Astarte  ;  at  Damas,  Rimmon;  and  in  Philistia,  Dagon.  If 
this  exalted  patriotism  had  been  born  in  Moab  or  at 
Damas,  it  would  have  found  expression  in  the  names  of 
Camos  or  of  Rimmon.  Being  born  at  Jerusalem,  it  was 
uttered  in  the  name  of  Jahveh. 

The  man,  or  the  group,  known  as  Esdras  announced 
that  Jahveh  had  devastated  his  land,  scattered  his  people, 
destroyed  his  town,  and  burned  his  temple,  because  his 
town  had  denied  him,  and  his  temple  had  witnessed  the 
setting-up  of  foreign  idols  in  face  of  his  jealousy.  That 
meant  that  the  land  of  Judah  had  been  laid  waste,  its 
people  scattered,  and  the  town  destroyed,  because  their 
ancestors  had  let  the  love  of  their  country  grow  cold  in 
their  hearts ;  because  the  people  had  not  held  together  in 
the  great  national  solidarity ;  because  nationalism,  which 
alone  makes  a  people  great,  had  been  enfeebled  in  the 
town  of  Jerusalem. 

The  defeat,  the  ruin,  the  deportation,  the  obscure 
misery,  and  the  servitude  had  punished  the  soul  of  Judah 
for  not  maintaining  the  great  passion  for  one's  country, 
for  lack  of  which  every  people  is  condemned  to  death. 
Esdras  expressed  that  when  he  proclaimed  that  Jahveh 
had  punished  his  people  for  being  unfaithful  to  him,  for 
having  worshipped  other  gods.  The  restoration,  the 
return  of  hope,  the  better  prospect,  would  reward  the 
Jewish  people,  if  it  drew  together  in  a  fiercely  exclusive 
nationalism.  Esdras  expressed  that  when  he  announced 
that  Jahveh  restored  the  life  of  his  faithful  children,  and 
promised  them  a  happy  future  if  they  consecrated  them- 
selves entirely  to  him. 

Historically,  it  was  false  to  say  that  the  old  kingdom  of 


30  ESDEAS 

Judah  had  been  faithless  to  Jahveh.  We  know  that 
Jahveh  had  always  been  worshipped  in  Judah,  and  it  is 
impossible  to  conceive  that  any  other  national  god  than 
Jahveh  had  been  worshipped  there.  But  Esdras  was  not 
concerned  with  historical  criticism ;  and  the  glorious 
untruth  of  those  who  restored  the  Jewish  nation  to  life 
in  the  fifth  century  met  none  to  contradict  it.  The  soul 
that  has  come  back  from  the  death-agony,  and  seeks  to 
know  why  it  has  suffered,  does  not  need  a  true  answer ; 
it  needs  a  reply  that  will  prove  a  remedy.  The  untruth 
of  Esdras  was  the  sole  remedy  that  could,  and  did,  save 
the  Jewish  soul.  After  such  dire  catastrophes,  in  the 
midst  of  continual  danger,  in  face  of  a  future  full  of  peril, 
it  was  necessary  to  put  soul  into  a  people  that  would  live. 
It  was  necessary  to  say  to  it :  "  Behold  thy  flag  !  In  that 
is  thy  strength.  If  thou  wilt  keep  thy  eyes  on  that 
emblem,  thou  shalt  be  strong.  If  thou  turnest  away, 
doubt  not  that  thou  art  lost.  Know  that,  as  often  as  thy 
fathers  rallied  to  it  they  won  glorious  victories.  And 
when  they  turned  away  from  it  remember  Nabuchodo- 
nosor  the  conqueror,  remember  they  blackened  home  and 
scorched  vine,  remember  the  exile  by  the  rivers  of 
Babylon.  Thou  hast  been  conquered,  Judah,  because 
thou  didst  betray  Jahveh.  Thou  hast  recovered  because 
thou  hast  returned  to  him.  Be  faithful  to  Jahveh,  Judah, 
and  thou  shalt  be  happy." 

It  was  thus  that  the  profound  and  desperate  meditation 
of  the  men  of  Jerusalem,  in  the  fifth  century,  saved  them. 

It  was  thus  that  the  earlier  local  god  of  Judah,  the 
protecting  Jahveh  of  Judah,  like  to  the  Camos  of  Moab 
and  the  Milkom  of  Amnion,  was  transformed,  enlarged, 
animated,  and  became  the  formidable  being  whom  we 
afterwards  find  depicted  in  the  Bible. 

At  Jerusalem,  then,  the  religious  question  was  a 
national  question.  The  unutterable  name,  Jahveh,  of 
which  scholars  are  unable  to  find  the  origin,  has  this 
meaning,  and  may  be  thus  translated :  our  Fatherland. 


THE  ESDKAS  SCHOOL  31 

"  Thou  shalt  love  the  lord  thy  god  with  all  thy  love," 
commands  Deuteronomy.  That  means :  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  country  above  thyself."  The  standard  to  which 
the  patriots  were  to  rally  was  the  name  of  the  god. 
Henceforth  to  offer  outrage  to  Jahveh  would  be  to  insult 
the  flag.  In  great  nations  there  is  a  blind  and  fierce  idol, 
with  sword  in  hand,  the  Fatherland,  v/hich  demands 
human  sacrifices,  and  to  which  fathers  must  bring  their 
children  as  holocausts.  At  Jerusalem  the  idol  was  named 
Jahveh. 

This   exalted   nationalism,  of   which   we   are   now   to 
follow  the  development,  was  the  cradle  of  Christianity. 


§  2.  The  Esdras  ScJiool. 

Tradition  places  in  the  year  458,  three-quarters  of  a 
century  after  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple,  the  arrival  of 
Esdras  at  Jerusalem.  There  was  much  dispute  about 
this  date,  and  even  about  the  historical  reality  of  Esdras, 
when  the  Elephantine  papyri'  were  found  to  confirm,  not 
indeed  the  historicity  of  Esdras,  but  the  dating  of  the 
events  which  are  ascribed  to  him.  We  have  therefore,  in 
this  study,  taken  Esdras  as  the  expression  of  the  school, 
political  group,  or  national  movement,  which  developed 
at  Jerusalem  at  this  very  epoch. 

The  work  of  the  Esdras  school  consists  of  three  great 
leading  achievements : — 

1.  The  prohibition  of  any  other  cult  than  that  of 
Jahveh. 

2.  The  prohibition  of  mixed  marriages. 

3.  The  prohibition  of  any  representation  of  Jahveh  in  a 
material  form. 

Peohibition  of  any  other  cult  than  that  of 
Jahveh. — In  the  older  Jerusalem  of  the   kings,  and  in 

'  See  p.  XV. 


32  ESDEAS 

the  restored  Jerusalem  of  Zorobabel  and  Nehemiah,  there 
had  not  been  any  other  cult,  apart  from  insignificant 
exceptions,  than  that  of  Jahveh.  But  in  this  the 
Jerusalemites  merely  followed  the  common  Palestinian 
custom  of  worshipping  no  god  but  their  own.  With  the 
Esdras  school  the  exclusion  of  foreign  gods  becomes  a 
formal  proscription. 

Was  there  some  danger  at  Jerusalem,  at  the  time, 
of  the  intrusion  of  foreign  cults  ?  At  first  communica- 
tion between  one  people  and  another  had  been 
rare  and  difficult,  and  the  Persian  empire  did  not 
concern  itself  with  proselytism.  One  cannot  see  how 
the  old  Jahveh,  in  the  depths  of  his  sanctuary,  could 
be  disturbed  by  any  god  of  the  district  or  by  a  Persian 
god. 

Did  the  danger  come  from  the  ancient  gods  of 
Palestine,  which  Jahveh  had  once  reduced  to  the  condi- 
tion of  vanquished  gods,  as  the  Israelitic  tribes  subdued 
their  worshippers  ?  As  we  have  said,  these  cults  had  not 
disappeared ;  but  they  had  become  lowly  popular  super- 
stitions, and  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  the  ancient  gods 
of  Canaan,  in  the  Judah  of  the  fifth  century,  otherwise 
than  as  little  agrarian  gods,  insignificant  local  demons, 
which  no  more  threatened  the  lord  Jahveh  than  the  altars 
of  a  St.  Antony  of  Padua  contain  a  menace  to  the  official 
Catholic  cult. 

The  obscurity  of  Jewish  history  at  this  period  reduces 
us  to  hypotheses.  In  any  case,  the  legislation  of  the  fifth 
and  fourth  centuries  betrays  a  constant  preoccupation 
with  foreign  cults  and  the  ancient  cults  of  Palestine. 
With  Esdras,  in  fact,  the  law  of  fierce  patriotism,  without 
which  the  Jewish  State  could  not  exist,  always  took  the 
form  of  a  kind  of  uncompromising  fidelity  to  the  national 
god.  Jahveh  alone  is  the  god  of  Jerusalem,  is  the  in- 
variable starting-point  of  the  Jewish  legislation.  As  soon 
as  there  were  any  laws  at  Jerusalem,  apostasy — that  is  to 
say,  the   worshipping  by   a  Jew  of  any  other  god  than 


THE  ESDKAS  SCHOOL  33 

Jahveh — was  denounced  as  the  greatest  of  crimes,  and 
punished  with  death.  One  after  another  the  most 
frightful  measures  were  passed  to  prevent  the  possibihty 
of  a  rehgious  secession. 

The  text  we  are  about  to  quote  is  about  half  a  century 
later  than  Esdras,  but  it  will  give  an  accurate  idea  of  the 
way  in  which  the  Esdras  school  were  disposed  to  treat 
anti-patriotism : — 

If  thy  brother,  the  son  of  thy  mother,  or  thy  son,  or 
thy  daughter,  or  the  wife  of  thy  bosom,  or  thy  friend, 
which  is  as  thine  own  soul,  entice  thee  secretly,  saying : 
Let  us  go  and  serve  other  gods 

Thou  shalt  not  consent  unto  him,  nor  hearken  unto 
him  ;  neither  shall  thine  eye  pity  him,  neither  shalt  thou 
spare,  neither  shalt  thou  conceal  him  : 

But  thou  shalt  surely  kill  him ;  thine  hand  shall  be 
first  upon  him  to  put  him  to  death,  and  afterwards  the 
hand  of  all  the  people. 

And  thou  shalt  stone  him  with  stones,  that  he  die  ; 
because  he  hath  sought  to  thrust  thee  away  from  Jahveh 
thy  god 

If  thou  shalt  hear  say  of  one  of  thy  cities,  which 
Jahveh  thy  god  hath  given  thee  to  dwell  there,  saying : 
Certain  pei'verse  men  are  gone  out  from  among  you,  and 
have  withdrawn  the  inhabitants  of  their  city,  saying :  Let 
us  go  and  serve  other  gods 

Then  shalt  thou  inquire,  and  make  search,  and  ask 
diligently. 

And  behold,  if  it  be  truth,  and  the  thing  certain,  that 
such  abomination  is  wrought  among  you  ; 

Thou  shalt  surely  smite  the  inhabitants  of  that  city 
with  the  edge  of  the  sword,  thou  shalt  curse  it  with  all 
that  is  therein,  and  thou  shalt  slay  the  cattle  thereof  with 
the  edge  of  the  sword. 

And  thou  shalt  gather  all  the  spoil  of  it  into  the  midst 
of  the  street  thereof,  and  shalt  burn  with  fire  the  city  and 
all  the  spoil  thereof  every  whit,  for  Jahveh  thy  god ;  and 
it  shall  be  an  heap  of  ruins  for  ever  ;  it  shall  not  be  built 
again. ^ 

The   purpose   of    the   Inquisition   was   to   establish   a 

*  Deuteronomy  xiii.  6-16.     [The  few  modifications  of  the  English  text 
are  in  accordance  with  the  author's  reading  of  the  Hebrew. — J.  M.] 

D 


34  ESDEAS 

religion.     The  purpose  of  the  atrocities  of  Deuteronomy 
was  to  found  a  nation. 

Prohibition  op  Mixed  Marriages. — This  was,  perhaps, 
the  special  work  of  Esdras. 

The  princes  came  to  me  [says  Esdras,  in  the  book 
which  is  ascribed  to  him]  saying :  The  people  of  Israel, 
and  the  priests,  and  the  Levites,  have  not  separated 
themselves,  in  regard  to  their  abominations,  from  the 
people  of  the  lands 

For  they  have  taken  of  their  daughters  for  themselves, 
and  for  their  sons  ;  so  that  the  holy  seed  have  mingled 
themselves  with  the  people  of  these  lands 

And  when  I  heard  this  thing,  I  rent  my  mantle  and 
my  garment,  and  plucked  off  the  hair  of  my  head  and  of 
my  beard,  and  sat  down  astonished  until  the  evening.' 

And  later  on  : — 

Now  therefore  give  not  your  daughters  unto  their  sons, 
neither  take  their  daughters  unto  your  sons,  nor  seek 
their  peace  or  their  wealth  for  ever ;  that  ye  may  be 
strong  and  eat  the  good  of  the  land,  and  leave  it  for  an 
inheritance  for  your  children  for  ever.'^ 

And  foreign  women  were  expelled,  with  the  children 
they  had  had. 

The  narrative  is  legendary  ;  but  the  fact  seems  to  be 
historical,  and  there  is  reason  to  allow  Esdras  the  honour 
of  having  accomplished  it.  All  the  Hebrew  books  make 
the  prohibition  of  mixed  marriages  one  of  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  Judaism.  When  they  have  to  relate  the 
apostasies  of  Solomon,  they  will  ascribe  them  to  the 
influence  of  the  foreign  princesses  introduced  into  his 
harem.  When  they  have  to  describe  the  edifying  life  of 
the  typical  heroes  of  Judaism — the  life  of  Abraham  and 
his  descendants — they  will  marry  them  solely  to  women 
of  their  own  race.  Indeed,  the  Deuteronomic  law  was 
explicit : — 

Neither  shalt  thou  make  marriages  with  them  [the 
surrounding  nations]  ;  thy  daughter  thou  shalt  not  give 

1  Esdras  ix.  1-4.  ^  Esdras  ix.  12. 


THE  ESDEAS  SCHOOL  35 

unto  his  son,  nor  his  daughter  shalt  thou  take  unto  thy 
son. 

For  they  will  turn  away  thy  son  from  following  me, 
that  he  may  serve  other  gods/ 

The  prohibition  to  take  a  foreign  wife  was  a  powerful 
means  of  maintaining  at  Jerusalem  the  exclusive  cult  of 
Jahveh  ;  that  is  to  say,  of  promoting  a  purely  national 
development.  Later  the  Jewish  writers  will  speak  of  the 
sacredness  of  their  race,  and  will  shrink  from  the  mixed 
marriage  as  a  sacrilege.  But  in  the  fifth  century  there  is 
only  question  as  yet  of  inspiring  a  fierce  nationalism, 
under  the  pretext  of  an  absolute  consecration  of  the  Jewish 
families  to  Jahveh.  We  have  to  come  to  the  first  century 
before  the  present  era  to  find  the  Jews  relaxing  in  their 
observance  of  the  old  law,  and  to  St.  Paul  to  discover 
their  entire  rejection  of  it. 

Historians  admire  the  decision  with  which  the  men  of 
Jerusalem  made  for  themselves  this  anti-human  law, 
which,  in  repelling  from  them  the  women  of  the  surround- 
ing populations,  at  the  same  time  isolated  them  in  the 
midst  of  those  peoples. 

Prohibition  to  Kepresent  Jahveh  in  a  Material 
Form. — Here  the  historian  does  not  merely  admire  the 
opportuneness  of  a  severe  law,  but  is  amazed  at  a  con- 
ception so  profound  that  he  can  hardly  grasp  its  reali- 
sation. 

How  will  it  be  possible  to  make  this  enormous  differ- 
ence between  Jahveh  and  the  other  gods '?  How  will  it 
be  possible  to  isolate  him  so  jealously  in  the  heart  of  the 
Jewish  people  ?  How  can  they  make  of  him  so  excep- 
tional a  god  that  the  cult  of  other  gods  will  never  mingle 
with  his,  and  the  Jewish  fatherland  will  be  for  ever  the 
sole  deity  of  these  ardent  hearts  ? 

The  men  of  Jerusalem  in  the  fifth  century  imagined 
that  the  other  gods,  such  as  Camos,  Bel,  or  Rimmon, 

^  Deuteronomy  vii.  4. 


36  ESDRAS 

might  be  represented  as  an  ox,  a  serpent,  or  a  fish,  as  of 
either  or  both  sexes,  but  that  Jahveh  should  have  no 
representation  or  emblem  ;  that  he  should  rule,  sexless 
and  invisible,  in  the  storm. 

The  critic  finds  it  difficult,  in  view  of  the  scarcity  of 
documents  belonging  to  the  period,  to  say  hovv^  the  idea 
came  to  the  Jew^s  of  the  fifth  century  of  a  god  without 
images.  Possibly  it  was  suggested  to  them  by  the  Iranian 
religion,  which  had  no  representations  of  Ormuzd  ;  though 
the  influence  of  Iranism  on  the  Jews  seems  to  be  later 
than  the  fifth  century,  and  it  is  at  Babylon  and  in  the 
Babylonian  civilisation  that  the  men  of  Jerusalem  were 
educated.  There  may  have  been  some  accidental  cause. 
Perhaps  the  destruction  of  all  the  emblems  of  Jahveh  at 
the  time  of  the  Babylonian  conquest,  the  extreme  misery 
of  the  Jerusalemites  at  the  time  of  the  Eestoration,  the 
impossibility  of  making  divine  images  rich  and  magnificent 
enough  to  represent  the  god  of  whom  they  now  dreamed, 
or  a  repugnance  to  their  rude  and  inadequate  images, 
inclined  them  to  dispense  with  a  material  representation 
of  their  deity  altogether.  We  do  not  know.  Accidental 
causes  are  unknown,  the  deeper  cause  is  clear.  In  impos- 
ing this  new  law,  he  whom  we  call  Esdras  yields  to  a 
powerful  political  need.  The  man  of  genius  is  but  the 
mouthpiece  of  a  group.  He  seems  to  stand  out  in 
advance  because  he  is  the  first  to  formulate  clearly 
the  law  which  is  vaguely  muttered  by  those  about  him. 
At  times  he  seems  to  be  in  opposition  to  his  contem- 
poraries, but  it  is  an  illusion.  He  is  merely  overpowering 
their  inertia,  pressing  them  toward  the  goal  to  which  they 
are  unconsciously  tending.  So  extraordinary  a  novelty  as 
a  god  without  images  in  the  Palestine  of  the  fifth  century 
must  be  explained  by  the  normal  development  of  a 
nationalism  which  was  pushed  to  its  extreme  conse- 
quences. For  the  Jews  of  the  fifth  century  Jahveh,  or 
the  Jewish  fatherland,  had  to  be  something  unique, 
something    monstrously   and    incredibly   isolated.     This 


THE  ESDEAS  SCHOOL  37 

was  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  Jahveh ;  in  other 
words,  that  the  Jewish  fatherland  might  survive  amidst 
so  many  dangers. 

Take  ye  therefore  good  heed  to  yourselves  lest  ye  make 
you  a  graven  image,  the  similitude  of  any  figure, 

The  likeness  of  male  or  female,  the  likeness  of  any  beast 
that  is  on  the  earth,  the  likeness  of  any  winged  fowl  that 
flieth  in  the  air, 

The  likeness  of  anything  that  creepeth  on  the  ground, 
the  likeness  of  any  fish  that  is  in  the  waters  beneath  the 
earth  : 

And  lest  thou  lift  up  thine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  when 
thou  seest  the  sun,  and  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  even  all 
the  host  of  heaven,  shouldst  be  driven  to  worship  them, 
and  serve  them 

And  if  ye  corrupt  yourselves,  and  make  a  graven  image, 
or  the  likeness  of  anything,  and  shall  do  evil  in  the  sight 
of  Jahveh,  thy  god,  to  provoke  him  to  anger, 

I  call  heaven  and  earth  to  witness  against  you  this  day 
that  ye  shall  soon  utterly  perish  from  off  the  land ^ 

Similar  is  the  command  of  the  Decalogue : — 

Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  me. 
Thou  shalt  not  make  thee  any  graven  image ^ 


After  the  period  of  Esdras  there  is  no  representation  of 
Jahveh  in  the  temple.  At  the  bottom  of  the  sanctuary 
there  is  a  curtain,  and  the  holy  of  holies  behind  the 
curtain  is  an  empty  room.  The  Jewish  god  dwells  there 
unseen.  The  golden  bulls,  the  bronze  serpents,  the  old 
ephod  and  matsehah  and  asherali,  are  memories  of 
abomination ;  or,  rather,  they  change  their  meaning. 
The  golden  bulls  are  now  identified  with  the  angels  of 
Jahveh,  the  Kerubim ;  the  bronze  serpents  with  the 
Saraphim ;  the  ephod  becomes  a  ritual  garment ;  the 
matsehah  is  now  merely  a  commemorative  column.  The 
asherah  alone  perishes  in  the  wreck  ;  it  is  taken  to  be  a 
representation  of  the  Phoenician  Astarte.  The  old  cult 
disappears,  is  proscribed,  and  becomes  criminal. 

'  Deuteronomy  iv.  16-26.  ^  Deuteronomy  v.  7-8. 


■iH;55;: 


38  ESDRAS 

And  now  a  new  phenomenon  appears.  Eepresentations 
of  the  deity  are  so  severely  condemned  that  people  confuse 
the  ancient  representations  of  Jahveh  with  the  iigm-es  of 
the  other  gods  of  Palestine.  Idolatry  means  the  worship 
of  images ;  it  may  apply  to  the  worship  of  an  image  of 
Jahveh,  just  as  well  as  to  the  worship  of  images  of  other 
gods.  The  older  Israelites  had  been  guilty  of  idolatry  in 
worshipping  Jahveh  under  a  human  or  animal  form ;  but 
they  had  not  worshipped  foreign  gods,  such  as  Camos  and 
Milkom,  under  these  material  forms.  The  Jews  of  the 
Esdras  school  would  make  no  distinction  between  Jahvic 
and  foreign  idolatry ;  the  one  was  coupled  with  the  other 
in  a  common  execration ;  and,  when  some  centuries  had 
passed,  the  prophets  did  not  even  understand  that  these 
material  representations  had  belonged  to  Jahveh.  This 
failure  to  understand  the  ancient  religion  of  Israel  is,  as 
Maurice  Vernes  has  shown,  one  of  the  proofs  of  the 
extremely  late  date  of  the  prophetical  books. 

In  after  years  the  idea  of  a  god  without  material  repre- 
sentation will  be  one  of  the  forces  of  the  Judaism  which 
becomes  Christianity,  when  it  presents  itself  to  minds 
that  love  abstraction  and  are  weary  of  the  symbolism 
of  the  Greek  divinities.  But  we  must  understand  that  in 
the  fifth  century,  and  as  long  as  the  temple  of  Jerusalem 
stood,  this  cult  of  a  god  without  images,  instead  of  being  a 
spiritual  cult,  was  just  as  grossly  materialistic  as  that  of 
the  other  gods.  At  Jerusalem,  just  as  everywhere  else, 
the  local  god  is  honoured  by  the  immolation  of  animals. 
The  beasts  are  slain  before  the  altar.  The  priest  is  a 
sacrificer — in  other  words,  a  butcher.  The  Mosaic  legis- 
lation will  publish  a  manual  of  slaughtering  ;  and,  when 
Jerusalem  becomes  the  holy  city,  the  goal  of  countless 
pilgrims,  the  temple  will  be  a  vast  slaughter-house  where, 
in  honour  of  the  unseen  god,  the  blood  of  animals  will  flow 
without  ceasing. 


THE  FIKST  INSTITUTIONS  39 


§  3.  The  First  Institutions. 

Meantime  the  institutions  which  were  inspired  by  the 
great  design  of  centring  all  the  strength  of  the  Jewish 
soul  on  the  name  of  Jahveh  were  gradually  rising. 

The  Babylonian  influence,  which  will  presently  prove 
overwhelming  at  Jerusalem,  is  not  yet  appreciable  except 
in  so  far  as  it  dominates  the  whole  civilisation  of  western 
Asia.  The  disciples  of  Esdras  shut  themselves  sternly 
within  their  walls,  under  the  shadow  of  their  temple. 
The  Jewish  element  rules  as  exclusively  as  is  possible. 
Then  the  nationalism  of  the  Jews  clothes  itself  at  once 
with  the  religious  garb  which  it  will  never  again  lay 
aside.  The  form  of  government  becomes  a  theocracy. 
The  institutions,  evolving  round  the  religion  of  Jahveh, 
assume  a  religious  form.  The  laws,  civil  as  well  as 
hygienic,  will  become  religious  laws.  The  government 
will  assume  a  religious  character,  and  the  leaders  of  the 
State  will  rule  in  the  name  of  Jahveh,  and  be  priests. 

How  did  the  priests  of  the  local  god  attain,  in  the 
fifth  century,  to  the  government  of  the  State  of  Jerusalem  ? 
In  the  absence  of  documentary  evidence,  we  can  only  say 
that  the  historical  probabilities  point  to  the  priests  as  the 
only  men,  after  the  Kestoration,  who  were  capable  of 
exercising  authority  in  the  town  and  its  neighbourhood. 

The  State  of  Jerusalem  advances  under  the  supervision 
of  its  Persian  masters ;  the  emperor  who  reigns  at  Susa, 
and  the  satrap  who  governs  in  Syria,  grant  the  Jews  full 
liberty  of  administration,  provided  that  they  live  in  peace 
and  pay  the  tribute.  There  was  not,  and  could  not  be, 
a  Jewish  army,  and  assuredly  there  was  no  military 
caste.  The  Persian  hegemony  laid  no  other  specific 
obligation  on  its  subject-peoples  than  political  submission 
and  taxation.  There  was,  then,  nothing  of  a  military 
character  at  Jerusalem  to  take  the  lead.  The  extreme 
poverty  and  lack  of  commerce  and  industry  during  the 


40  ESDEAS 

century  which  followed  the  Restoration  prevented  the 
formation  of  a  middle  class.  Industry  never  flourished 
at  Jerusalem.  Commerce  remained  scanty  when  the 
Persian  peace  was  established  in  the  east.  An  oligarchy 
of  merchants  was  hardly  more  possible  than  a  military 
oligarchy  in  the  Jerusalem  of  the  fifth  and  fourth 
centuries.  The  domination  of  a  petty  sultan,  a  sort  of 
pacha  ruling  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Syrian  satrap, 
could  not  have  been  set  up  without  at  least  a  semblance 
of  national  military  authority.  Supported  solely  by  the 
power  of  Persia,  it  would  have  been  odious  to  the  people. 
The  Persian  Empire  never  inclined  to  have  its  small 
vassal  states  administered  by  prefects.  It  was  only  the 
organisation  of  Rome  that  would  send  functionaries  to 
the  other  end  of  the  world.  In  view  of  the  impossibility 
of  any  other  form  of  government,  therefore,  a  clerical 
government  was  almost  inevitable,  from  the  very  nature 
of  the  situation.  And  it  was  found  that  this  government 
corresponded  with  the  needs  of  the  people  of  Jerusalem. 

Was  the  patriotism  of  the  Jews  formulated  in  the 
name  of  the  national  god  because  a  priestly  government 
was  the  only  one  possible  at  Jerusalem  in  the  time  of 
Esdras  ?  Or  did  the  government  of  Jerusalem  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  priests  because  Jewish  patriotism 
expressed  itself  in  the  name  of  the  national  god  ?  It  is 
probable  that  cause  and  effect  acted  together  and  gave 
rise  to  a  twofold  logical  necessity ;  the  priestly  govern- 
ment confirmed  the  patriotism  of  the  Jews  in  a  religious 
form,  and  the  concentration  of  their  patriotism  in  a 
religious  form  decisively  strengthened  the  priestly  govern- 
ment. 

From  the  time  of  Esdras — that  is  to  say,  from  the  time 
when  the  Jewish  State  began  to  live — the  priests  found 
themselves  at  the  head  of  the  social  hierarchy.  There 
was  neither  military  caste,  nor  oligarchy  of  merchants, 
nor  despotic  pacha.  The  Persian  lieutenant  represented 
the  distant  military  power,  to  which  no  one  dreamed  of 


THE  FIEST  INSTITUTIONS  41 

offering  resistance,  and  the  local  police  sufficed  to  maintain 
order.  There  was  a  sacerdotal  caste ;  and  the  leader  of 
the  priests,  the  high-priest,  governed.  The  first  care  of 
the  Jewish  legislators  seems  to  have  been  to  establish  a 
system  of  tithes  on  the  harvest  and  on  cattle,  a  scheme 
of  offerings,  voluntary  or  involuntary,  which  would 
rapidly  gather  into  the  hands  of  the  priests  all  the  wealth 
possible  in  the  miserable  little  country.  The  sacerdotal 
caste  was  soon  as  rich  as  it  was  powerful. 

It  quickly  formed  itself  into  a  hierarchy.  Bound  the 
person  of  the  high-priest  a  certain  number  of  families 
seized  the  revenue  and  the  authority.  The  Mosaic  law 
will  give  the  name  of  priest-levites  to  these  privileged 
members  of  the  priesthood.  The  simple  levites,  at  a 
lower  level  than  these,  formed  a  sort  of  army,  maintained 
and  directed  by  the  priests.  Finally,  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sacerdotal  caste  there  were  the  lowly  functions  of  the 
poor  officers  who  were  not  even  levites.  If  we  imagine 
the  vast  Catholic  Church  reduced  to  the  proportions  of  a 
Church  having  control  of  a  community  of  less  than  thirty 
thousand  souls,  we  can  picture  to  ourselves  the  bishops 
with  their  pope,  then  the  army  of  curates  and  vicars, 
and,  as  was  seen  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  crowd  of 
humbler  officials  working  in  obscurity  about  the  altar. 

There  was  this  difference,  that  at  Jerusalem  the  priests 
made  and  applied  the  laws  and  administered  justice. 
The  executive  and  judiciary  power,  as  well  as  the  legis- 
lative authority,  belonged  to  them.  They  were  the 
heart,  the  brain,  and  the  arm  of  Jerusalem. 

Beneath  the  sacerdotal  caste  the  people  were  distri- 
buted in  families  of  husbandmen,  shepherds,  and  small 
merchants.  They  were  far  removed  from  the  life  of  the 
patriarchs ;  nevertheless,  beyond  the  little  commerce  that 
was  indispensable  in  any  community,  agriculture  and  the 
rearing  of  cattle  were  the  sole  business  of  the  Jews  in 
the  Persian  period.  The  legislation  of  Exodus,  Deutero- 
nomy, and,  later,  Leviticus,  does  not  deal  with  any  other 


42  ESDRAS 

customs  than  the  quite  primitive  ways  of  an  absolutely 
territorial  people,  among  whom  there  is  great  poverty. 

Finally,  the  Sabbath  is  a  theocratic  institution ;  its 
purpose,  like  that  of  the  prohibition  of  mixed  marriages 
and  the  condemnation  of  any  representation  of  Jahveh  in 
a  material  form,  is  to  isolate  the  nationalism  of  the  Jews 
among  the  other  peoples. 

The  Sabbath  would  have  little  interest  if  it  were  no 
more  than  a  day  of  idleness  for  the  profit  of  the  workers, 
the  slave  as  well  as  the  free  man,  even  to  the  beasts  of 
the  fields.  It  is,  on  the  contrary,  the  day  consecrated  to 
Jahveh  ;  it  is  a  sort  of  tithe  that  the  Jew  will  take  from 
the  week,  the  offering  of  a  day  which  he  owes  to  his  god. 
It  is  a  taboo  day.  Let  any  man  who  doubts  this  open 
his  Bible  : — 

The  seventh  day  is  the  sabbath  of  Jahveh,  thy  god 

Remember  that  thou  wast  a  servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt, 
and  that  Jahveh,  thy  god,  brought  thee  out  thence  through 
a  mighty  hand  and  by  a  stretched-out  arm  ;  therefore 
Jahveh,  thy  god,  commanded  thee  to  keep  the  sabbath 
day.^ 

The  law  of  the  third  century  puts  the  motive  even 
more  plainly : — 

Jahveh  rested  on  the  seventh  day ;  wherefore  Jahveh 
blessed  the  sabbath  day  and  hallowed  it.^ 

The  man  who  desecrates  the  Sabbath  is  put  to  death. ^ 
We  must  admit  that  the  death-penalty  would  be  excessive 
if  it  were  merely  a  matter  of  ensuring  respect  for  a  purely 
humanitarian  institution. 

Even  more  than  circumcision,  which  was  common  to 
many  of  the  peoples  of  Palestine  and  has  not  a  great 
importance  in  the  Bible,  the  Sabbath  is  the  outward  mark 
by  which  the  children  of  Jahveh  must  separate  themselves 
from  other  men.     He  therefore  does  not  merely  order 

*  Deuteronomy  v.  14-15.  *  Exodus  xx.  11.     See  also  xxxi.  12-17. 

*  Exodus  xxxi.  14-15. 


PEOGEESS  OF..THE  STATE  OF  JEEUSALEM      43 

rest,  but  commands  abstention  from  all  work,  of  any  kind 
whatever,  and  an  entire  consecration  to  Jahveh. 

The  Jewish  institutions  are,  therefore,  organised  on  an 
essentially  nationalist  basis,  and  in  an  essentially  religious 
form.  The  Persian  suzerainty  was  the  providential  feature 
which,  by  maintaining  a  general  peace  in  the  world, 
allowed  the  theocracy  to  develop.  If  Jerusalem  had  been 
independent,  it  would  have  needed  an  army,  a  military 
power,  and  would  have  had  the  precarious  existence  of 
all  petty  States.  As  a  vassal  of  Persia,  Jerusalem  was 
able  to  begin  in  freedom  the  extraordinary  work  of  con- 
quering Palestine,  and  then  the  world,  with  the  arms  of 
a  spiritual  body. 


§  4.  Progress  of  the  State  of  Jerusalem. 

In  virtue  of  the  nationalism  which  its  priests  had 
imposed  on  it,  the  little  State  of  Jerusalem  enjoyed  a 
great  prosperity  from  the  end  of  the  fifth  century.  The 
Jewish  soul  was  greater  than  that  of  neighbouring  peoples. 
Jerusalem  was  a  centre,  or,  rather,  a  heart,  from  which 
the  strength  streamed  out  on  every  side.  The  Jewish 
activity — the  activity  of  the  men  of  Jerusalem — was  felt 
as  far  as  the  frontiers  of  the  Palestinian  territory. 

In  Palestine  the  State  of  Samaria  alone  made  some 
show  of  resistance  to  Judaism.  We  have  not  the  needful 
documents  to  tell  the  story  of  the  development  of  Samaria. 
Possibly  the  capital  of  the  former  kingdom  of  Ephraim 
had  preserved  its  regional  supremacy,  and  it  may  have 
been  an  important  town  in  the  sixth  century,  when 
Jerusalem  was  only  just  beginning  to  revive.  Possibly  it 
developed  at  equal  pace  with  Jerusalem  in  the  fifth 
century,  retaining,  while  Jerusalem  enlarged,  its  moral 
autonomy,  with  its  temple  on  Mount  Garizim  in  contrast 
to  the  temple  of  Jerusalem.  Finally,  it  is  possible  that 
the  temple  of  Mount  Garizim,  as  the  Jewish  historian 


44  ESDRAS 

Flavins  Josephus  tells,  was  not  built  until  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century.^  However  that  may  be,  we  find  the 
antagonism  of  Jerusalem  and  Samaria  in  the  earliest 
pages  of  Jewish  history.  By  the  fourth  century  Samaria 
was  a  rival,  if  not  an  enemy,  of  Jerusalem. 

The  other  Palestinian  States  were  incapable  of  resisting 
Jewish  influence.  Most  of  them  merely  vegetated,  or 
remained  stationary.  The  priests  who  ruled  at  Jerusalem 
saw  their  authority  extend  on  every  side. 

Their  ambition  grew  with  their  success. 

Judaea  has  always  been  a  poor  country.  The  thousand 
square  miles  which  represented  the  little  State  in  the  fifth 
century  consisted  of  a  vast  plateau  which  was  for  the  most 
part  sterile,  and  gradually  merged  into  the  desert  toward 
the  south.  The  State  of  Samaria  in  the  north  was  more 
fertile ;  but  the  plains  of  Gaza  in  the  west,  and  the  rich 
valleys  of  Galilee  beyond  Samaria,  excited  the  envy  of  the 
wretched  mountaineers  of  Jerusalem.  The  populations 
of  these  regions  spoke  the  same  language.  Though  they 
were  often  at  enmity,  they  seemed  to  belong  to  the  same 
family.  Why  should  not  the  Jews  succeed  in  imposing 
their  leadership  on  the  others  ? 

From  the  remotest  period  of  the  history  of  the  ancient 
kingdom  of  Judah,  which  they  had  set  themselves  to  study, 
the  names  of  David  and  Solomon  shone  with  the  aureole 
which  illumined  their  sombre  genius.  David  and  Solomon 
had  not  been  humble  sultans,  like  their  successors ;  their 
empire  had  reached  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Jordan, 
from  Lebanon  to  the  southern  deserts.  David,  the  first 
king  of  Jerusalem,  and  king  of  nearly  the  whole  land  of 
Palestine,  was  quite  enough  to  suggest  to  the  cupidity  of 
the  Jerusalem  aristocracy  the  idea  of  the  kingdom  of 
which  Jerusalem  would  be  the  capital. 

The  Persian  Empire  had  not  allowed  the  thousand 
small    States   and   slight   territorial   unities  it  had  con- 

*  Appendix  II. 


PEOGEESS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  JEEUSALEM      45 

federated  to  enlarge  their  boundaries  at  each  other's 
expense.  The  satrap  who  governed  the  Syrian  region 
was  at  Sidon.  Both  at  Jerusalem  and  Samaria  there 
were  lieutenants  representing  his  authority.  Under  the 
Persian  dominion  there  was  no  chance  for  Jerusalem  to 
enlarge  its  power  in  any  other  than  a  religious  sense. 
But  religious  aggrandisement  meant  political  aggrandise- 
ment. The  Persian  government  merely  exacted  the  pay- 
ment of  the  tax.  Once  that  was  paid  and  order  was 
respected,  every  man  who  worshipped  the  god  of  Jeru- 
salem obeyed  the  clergy  of  Jerusalem.  To  introduce  the 
Jewish  religion  into  the  towns  of  Palestine  was  to  secure 
the  acceptance  of  the  Jewish  law,  the  recognition  of  the 
Jerusalem  aristocracy  as  master,  and  a  fresh  source  of 
revenue  for  the  temple  through  the  tithes. 

In  this  way,  under  the  suzerainty  of  its  Persian  masters, 
Jerusalem  could  become  the  capital  and  the  metropolis  of 
the  ancient  cities  of  Palestine.  Its  aristocracy  did  not, 
however,  confine  itself  to  this  ambition.  Had  it  not  the 
right  to  expect  and  to  hope  that  at  some  future  date — it 
might  be  far  or  it  might  be  near — the  Persian  Empire, 
against  which  its  neighbours,  Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  were 
constantly  rebelling,  and  which  showed  evident  signs  of 
decrepitude  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century,  would  fall 
to  pieces?  It  had  succeeded  too  well,  in  virtue  of  its 
nationalism,  in  restoring  the  little  State  of  Jerusalem,  in 
spite  of  countless  difficulties,  not  to  consider  itself  justified 
in  entertaining  such  high  ambitions.  Nationalism,  a 
necessary  condition  of  the  development  of  a  young  people, 
proves  inadequate  unless  it  is  enriched  with  that  spirit 
of  expansion,  domination,  and  conquest  which  we  call 
imperialism.  Thibet  is,  perhaps,  a  model  of  the  nation- 
alist state.  More  gifted  peoples  are  not  content  merely 
to  endure ;  they  wish  to  grow,  and  they  unconsciously 
feel  that  he  who  does  not  grow  will  perish.  It  is  the 
law  of  imperialism. 

The  ancient  kingdom  of  Judah  had  been  independent. 


46  ESDRAS 

Could  not  the  new  State,  which  they  dreamed  of  building 
within  the  frontiers  of  the  former  Davidic  empire,  secure, 
with  the  help  of  Jahveh,  its  political  independence  ?  The 
possession  of  Palestine — the  free  and  peaceful  possession 
of  Palestine — was  the  formula  which  the  priests  of  Jeru- 
salem were  about  to  write  on  every  page  of  their  books. 
It  was  the  programme  they  had  undertaken  to  carry  out 
ever  since  the  close  of  the  fifth  century. 

It  is  at  this  period  that  literature  is  born  at  Jerusalem. 
From  this  point  the  study  of  the  history  of  Judaism 
becomes  a  study  of  its  books — the  books  of  the  Bible — 
in  the  order  in  which  they  were  composed. 

We  are  singularly  fortunate  in  having  the  history  of 
Judaic  ideas  recorded  in  a  series  of  books  that  had  issued 
from  such  a  depth  of  the  Jewish  soul,  had  been  so  passion- 
ately lived  by  the  Jewish  soul,  and  were  so  vehemently 
symbolical  of  the  Jewish  soul,  that  no  literature  of  any 
other  people  forms  so  adequate  an  expression  of  the 
history  of  that  people. 

With  some  sublime  pages,  the  books  of  the  Bible  are 
undigested  compilations  of  badly-made  records,  contra- 
dictory, devoid  of  art  or  style.  The  smallest  chapter  of 
a  Greek  or  Roman  writer  seems  to  be  all  harmony,  logic, 
and  truth,  when  one  approaches  it  from  the  chaos  of 
Hebrew  remains.  But  so  strong  a  soul  suffers,  hopes, 
and  uplifts  itself  so  vigorously  in  this  confusion  that  the 
wretched  people  lives  again  for  us  through  all  the  years  of 
its  terrible  career.  We  have  but  to  follow  the  series  of 
these  books  to  retrace,  from  its  very  source,  the  course  of 
the  great  river  that  will  one  day  be  the  river  of  Christian 
tradition. 

The  fifth  century  is  the  century  of  the  Medic  wars. 
Asia  is  failing  to  subdue  Greece,  and  Greece  is  beginning, 
in  Asia  Minor,  to  conquer  Asia.  Isolated  from  these 
glorious  episodes,  lost  in  the  most  obscure  corner  of  a 
small  province  of  the  vast  Persian  Empire,  living  among 
mountains  on  which  no  echo  ever  falls  of  the  great  events 


PEOGRESS  OF  THE  STATE  OF  JERUSALEM      47 

in  the  north,  the  Jewish  State,  with  a  rehgious  fanaticism 
that  is  merely  an  exalted  nationalism,  succeeded  in  giving 
itself  a  remarkably  original  character. 

Before  Jerusalem  was  destroyed  by  Nabuchodonosor 
the  State  of  Judah  was  a  small  nation.  After  the 
Eestoration  the  Jewish  State  is  a  congregation,  a  church, 
a  group  without  political  independence,  military  power,  or 
lay  chief,  governed  by  its  priests  under  the  suzerainty  of 
the  Persian  satrap. 

But  there  is  in  the  bosom  of  this  little  church  so 
profound  and  ardent  a  soul  that  without  armies,  by  the 
sole  power  of  its  vitality,  it  will  come  to  conquer  a  portion 
of  the  civilised  world.  Everywhere  else  men's  ambitions, 
dreams,  and  fevers  find  an  expression  in  deeds ;  here  it  is 
all  expressed  in  the  name  of  a  god  who  is  the  soul  of  the 
people,  and  in  whom  the  people  are  concentrated. 

Literature  only  makes  its  appearance  among  a  people 
when  it  has  reached  a  certain  stage  of  its  development. 
Quarter  of  a  century  after  Esdras  the  Jewish  State  is 
sufficiently  confident  of  its  spirit,  its  institutions,  and  its 
ideal  to  have  a  literature  at  length.  The  story  of  this 
literature  will  henceforth  be  the  history  of  the  imperialism 
of  Jerusalem. 


Chapter  III, 
THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

§  1.  The  National  Epic  of  an  Imperialism. 

The  literature  of  the  Jews  is  born  at  Jerusalem  in  the 
fifth  century  before  the  present  era.  It  has  from  the  first 
all  the  characters  of  primitive  literatures. 

The  general  character  of  primitive  literatures  is  to  take 
the  shape  of  a  series  of  epic  fragments,  independent  of 
each  other  even  vv^hen  they  continue  the  same  subjects. 
As  epic  fragments,  they  relate  the  history,  legends,  and 
fables  of  the  past.  A  concern  about  origins  is  found  at 
the  beginning  of  all  literatures ;  every  people,  as  soon  as 
it  becomes  self-conscious,  demands  that  it  be  told  whence 
it  came.  Being  independent  of  each  other,  these  epic 
fragments  are  short  compositions  that  are  held  together 
by  no  unity,  unless  it  be  the  unity  of  inspiration.  Called 
rhapsodies  in  ancient  Greece,  they  gave  themselves  in 
Judaea  the  name  mashal,  the  meaning  of  which  would 
afterwards  be  somewhat  altered ;  their  writers  are 
moshlim.  And  we  beg  to  be  allowed  to  use  these  two 
words,  unfamiliar  as  they  are,  rather  than  words  borrowed 
from  a  foreign  environment. 

Besides  this  general  character,  which  is  common  to  all 
primitive  literatures,  a  certain  number  of  special  char- 
acters are  due  to  the  different  situations  of  various  peoples. 
In  the  west  of  Asia  the  first  writers  are  local  priests.  The 
priests  are  powerful  among  newly -formed  societies  ;  at 
Jerusalem  they  govern  the  State.  Art,  in  the  sense  of  a 
composition  for  its  own  sake,  does  not  exist  among  the 
primitive  Orientals,  and  some  of  them,  such  as  the  Jewish 
people,  will  never  rise  to  its  level.     With  them  literature 

48 


THE  NATIONAL  EPIC  OF  AN  IMPEEIALISM     49 

has  always  an  immediate  object.  It  is  utilitarian  and 
political ;  it  is  dogmatic ;  it  justifies,  enforces,  or  recom- 
mends something. 

Most  frequently  it  provides  a  frame  for  legislation. 
The  laws  must  come  direct  from  heaven,  and  the  writers 
are  engaged  to  describe  how. 

Everything  contributes  to  the  same  object — fabulous 
traditions,  national  legends,  and  the  history  of  their 
ancestors,  are  turned  into  illustrations  of  the  religious, 
political,  or  social  theses  that  it  is  sought  to  impose. 

To  show  the  legitimacy  of  the  actual  institutions  seems 
to  be  no  less  needed.  It  must  be  explained  how  they 
were  established,  and  they  must  be  consecrated  by  having 
a  venerable  origin  assigned  to  them. 

The  relation  to  neighbouring  peoples  is  another  point 
that  the  moshlini  will  never  forget ;  they  have  to  show 
that,  if  their  own  people  have  such  and  such  a  descent, 
the  neighbouring  people  has  a  different  origin,  so  that  the 
recriminations,  ambitions,  and  hatreds  between  them  will 
thus  be  more  or  less  sanctified. 

These  special  characters  of  the  early  literatures  of 
ancient  western  Asia  may  be  resumed  in  a  general  law, 
which  has  persisted  so  steadily  as  the  dominant  law  of 
the  Hebrew  literature  that  it  seems  to  us  to-day  to  be 
peculiar  to  it ;  it  is  the  constant  practice  of  projecting 
into  the  past,  in  the  form  of  myths  and  legends,  the 
institutions,  laws,  and  theories  of  the  present  time. 

Encyclopaedias  of  the  religion,  law,  organisation,  and 
ambitions  of  an  epoch,  these  epic  growths  are  born  and 
develop  as  soon  as  the  national  soil  is  sufficiently  fertile, 
and  they  increase,  in  infinite  variety  and  often  in  contra- 
diction with  each  other,  until  the  time  when  the  reflective 
work  of  an  established  school  undertakes  to  gather  them 
together  in  great  epics.  Such  were  the  earliest  literatures 
of  western  Asia ;  such  was  bound  to  be,  and  such  was,  at 
Jerusalem,  the  Mosaic  literature,  or,  to  speak  more 
correctly,  the  great  cycle  of  epic  narratives  of  which  the 

E 


50  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

five  books  of  Moses,  and  the  books  of  Joshua,  Judges, 
Samuel,  and  Kings,  were  afterwards  formed. 

But,  while  this  national  epic  was  bound  to  have,  and 
actually  had,  the  general  characters  of  the  earliest  writings 
produced  in  any  civilisation,  and  especially  those  of  the 
civilisations  of  western  Asia,  it  was  further  bound  to  have 
the  absolutely  special  character,  which  distinguishes  it 
from  all  others,  of  being  the  expression  of  an  imperial- 
ism. 

Born  in  the  age  of  Cyrus,  the  Jewish  people  had  hardly 
known  more  than  a  century  of  real  existence  when  the 
first  mashal  was  written  ;  nevertheless,  the  five  centuries 
of  the  Davidic  dynasty  formed  a  prologue,  a  necessary 
pre-historic  phase,  to  it.  The  succinct  narratives  of  the 
ancient  historiographers  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  which 
survived  in  part  at  least,  provided  a  chronological  frame 
for  Jewish  history  from  David  to  the  Deportation ;  though 
they  may  have  been  no  more  than  a  few  great  deeds,  a 
few  anecdotes.  The  priests  of  Jerusalem  had  only  to 
resume  this  history  to  adapt  it  to  the  lessons  which  they 
desired  to  give.  But  what  could  they  discover  before 
David  ?  Until  the  day  when  David  made  Jerusalem  his 
citadel  it  had  been  but  a  poor  little  town  without  history 
or  legends.  Babylon  and  Memphis  had  countless  ages  of 
ancestors ;  Sichein,  Bethel,  and  Hebron,  in  Palestine,  had 
certain  vague  memories.     Jerusalem  had  nothing. 

How  could  the  priests  who  governed  the  little  State  of 
Jerusalem  make  their  past  begin  with  David  ?  Primitive 
peoples  have  always  hung  upon  the  most  remote  antiquity 
the  national  epics  with  which  they  illustrated  their  legis- 
lation. The  priests  of  Jerusalem,  who  began,  at  the  end 
of  the  fifth  century,  for  the  purpose  of  political  education, 
to  write  the  ancient  history  of  their  town,  could  not 
escape  this  psychological  necessity.  Their  ambition 
suggested  to  them  a  way  to  create  the  ancestors  that  they 
had  not. 

We  saw  how,  from  the  close  of  the  fifth  century,  the 


THE  NATIONAL  EPIC  OF  AN  IMPEEIALISM     51 

priests  of  Jerusalem  had  entertained  the  hope  of  re-estab- 
hshing,  with  profit  to  themselves,  the  ancient  empire  of 
David  and  Solomon,  and  formed  the  project  of  subduing 
the  populations  of  the  same  tongue  and  similar  manners 
v/ho,  in  the  north  and  on  the  west,  surrounded  their 
barren  mountains.  The  history  of  Jerusalem  in  Palestine 
is  the  same  as  that  of  Rome  in  Italy,  if  we  take  account 
of  the  difference  that  separates  the  Jewish  from  the 
Roman  soul.  Apart  from  the  difference  in  the  means 
that  are  at  the  command  of  a  sacerdotal  aristocracy  and  a 
military,  positivist,  and  juridical  aristocracy,  we  find,  on 
both  sides,  a  long-matured  resolution,  carried  out  with 
patience,  to  annex  the  surrounding  peoples.  But  while 
Rome  relies  solely  on  military  force  and  administrative 
power,  Jerusalem  uses  the  devices  of  churches ;  its  leaders 
begin  by  annexing  the  traditions,  the  ancient  glories,  the 
legends,  the  national  reminiscences  of  their  neighbours, 
before  annexing  their  consciences  and,  ultimately,  their 
territory. 

By  a  piece  of  brilliant  audacity  the  priests  of  Jerusalem 
were  about  to  lay  at  once  the  first  stone  of  their  work. 
Without  avowing  an  ambition  that  would  have  brought 
violent  hostility  upon  them,  they  set  to  work  on  a  plan 
that  was  conceived  for  ages. 

The  territory  of  Jerusalem  and  its  surroundings  had 
no  past ;  but,  as  we  said,  a  few  ancient  legends  survived 
among  their  Palestinian  neighbours.  Monuments,  tombs, 
and  stone  columns  preserved  the  remembrance  of  heroic 
names  and  adventures ;  traditions  were  cherished  that 
told  of  deeds  of  earlier  days ;  sanctuaries  were  still  found, 
sometimes  half  ruined,  which  went  back  to  an  age  long 
before  the  time  of  David  and  Solomon.  The  priests  of 
Jerusalem  resolved  to  appropriate  the  names,  adventures, 
traditions,  and  legends  of  their  neighbours.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  the  conquest.  Above  all  things  they  strive 
to  give  a  Jewish  character  to  the  traditions  of  Palestine, 
to  bring  local  legends  into  the  Jewish  cycle,  to  persuade 


62  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

the  Palestinians  that  they  are  brothers.  Finding  no  past 
among  themselves,  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  resolutely 
seize  the  past  of  their  future  subjects,  and  the  great 
national  epic,  which  ought  to  be  an  epic  of  Jerusalem,  is 
going  to  be  an  epic  of  Palestine.' 

Then,  with  no  less  brilliant  decision,  they  put  into 
circulation  the  word  which,  since  it  symbolised  the  past 
that  they  were  restoring,  symbolised  their  ambition.  To 
the  empire  of  David  and  Solomon,  which  had  disappeared 
five  hundred  years  before,  they  gave  a  name  which  was 
destined  to  create  a  unity  between  the  scattered  populations 
of  the  then  divided  Palestine.  They  did  not  invent  this 
name ;  they  rescued  it  from  oblivion,  and  adopted  it.  It 
was  the  name  Israel. 

In  a  certain  sense  it  might  be  said  that  the  Mosaic 
books  were  written  for  the  purpose  of  launching  the  name 
Israel,  which  represented  the  programme  of  the  Jerusalem 
aristocracy.  If  Israel  was  not  a  new  name,  we  may  be 
sure  that  it  had  no  longer  any  meaning  at  the  time  of  the 
Eestoration.  It  had  been  borne,  a  thousand  years  before 
Esdras,  by  the  last  nomads  to  settle  in  Palestine  ;  and, 
among  the  populations  whose  destruction,  as  we  saw,  is 
recorded  on  it,  the  column  of  a  pharaoh  mentions  Israalou. 
David  and  Solomon  had  afterwards  united  under  their 
domination  all  the  Bene-Israel,  but  their  empire  had  not 
cohered.  After  Solomon  the  tribes  of  the  north  are  rent 
from  the  tribes  of  the  south.  The  former  make  up  the 
kingdom  of  Ephraim ;  those  of  the  south  form  the 
kingdom  of  Judah.  Two  and  a-half  centuries  later  the 
destruction  of  the  Ephraimitic  empire  throws  the  ancient 
tribes  of  the  north  into  a  chaotic  condition.  The  Judaic 
kingdom  lasts  another  century  and  a-half;  then  it  in 
turn  disappears  in  the  conflagration  lit  by  Nabuchodo- 
nosor,  and  we  have  to  come  to  the  age  of  Cyrus  and  the 
end  of  the  sixth  century  to  witness  the  restoration,  or 

'  See  Appendix  III. 


THE  NATIONAL  EPIC  OF  AN  IMPEEIALISM     53 

creation,  of  the  cities  of  Palestine.  At  that  time  there  are 
a  certain  number  of  small  populations  speaking  the  same 
language  and  having  analogous  religions.  Possibly  they 
descend  from  the  ancient  Israelitic  tribes,  but  they  are 
none  the  less  isolated  from  each  other.  All  recollection 
of  ancient  Israel  is  obscured.  It  is  even  declared  that 
Judah  alone  was  restored  of  the  ancient  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel ;  the  others  have  disappeared.  And  the  unlimited 
complaisance  of  commentators  has,  down  to  our  own 
time,  disposed  them  to  seek  the  lost  tribes  in  the  centre 
of  Asia,  in  Madagascar,  or  in  Japan. 

The  priests  of  Jerusalem  at  once  give  a  meaning  and 
some  prestige  to  the  name  of  Israel  by  applying  it  to  the 
ancient  kingdom  of  David  and  Solomon.  A  certain  unity 
immediately  appears  among  the  populations  of  Palestine. 
They  are  found  to  have  common  ancestors,  they  form  one 
large  family,  and,  as  far  back  as  the  legends  of  Palestine 
reach,  they  discover  a  national  history  ;  a  new  fatherland 
has  been  created.  But,  in  making  an  Israelitic  kingdom 
of  the  provinces  of  the  former  Judaic  sultan  David,  the 
men  of  Jerusalem  indicated  that,  since  all  the  territory  of 
Palestine  had  once  been  united  under  the  sceptre  of 
Jahveh's  favourite  king,  it  must  be  united  again  some 
day,  and  that,  as  in  the  time  of  David,  Jerusalem  must 
be  its  centre  and  capital. 

The  name  Israel  is,  then,  merely  the  myth  in  which 
the  men  of  Jerusalem  have  symbolised  their  ambitions. 
It  is  a  Utopia  endowed  with  a  past.  Kenan,  after  and 
before  many  others,  wrote  a  history  of  the  people  of 
Israel.  We  know  Israelitic  tribes  fourteen  hundred  years 
before  the  present  era ;  we  then  become  acquainted  with 
two  Hebrew  kingdoms  ;  lastly  we  find  a  Jewish  people. 
But  we  must  erase  from  history  the  expression,  "  the 
people  of  Israel,"  or  leave  it  only  in  the  sense  of  being  the 
ideal  of  the  Jewish  people. 

The  priests  of  Jerusalem  had  thus  conceived  a  history 
of  their   past  in  which  they  would  absorb  the  precious 


54  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

relics  of  their  neighbours  whom  they  proposed  one  day 
to  annex.  But,  although  it  stretched  farther  back  than 
the  past  of  Jerusalem,  the  past  of  their  Palestinian  neigh- 
bours was  soon  exhausted,  and  the  most  ancient  of  their 
memories  scarcely  reached  more  than  a  couple  of  centuries 
ahead  of  David,  to  the  time  of  the  Judges.  Beyond  the 
Judges  lay  the  dark  night  of  barbarism. 

One  must  remember  that  at  the  time  of  the  Judges 
those  whom  we  call  the  Israelites  are  Bedouins,  scarcely 
settled  on  the  land.  Whence  do  they  come  ?  Through 
what  adventures  have  they  passed  ?  How  can  these 
mysteries  be  penetrated  ?  It  was  necessary  for  the  com- 
mentators to  be  affected  with  dogmatism  just  as  much  as 
the  priests  of  Jerusalem  were  in  the  fourth  century,  not 
to  advance  a  fatal  question,  an  absolute  non  possumus,  to 
the  Mosaic  records. 

One  day  hordes  of  nomadic  shepherds  and  marauders 
arrive  in  the  midst  of  the  plains  of  western  Syria,  dragging 
their  flocks  and  their  women  behind  them.  With  their 
weapons  in  their  hands,  they  have  slowly  crossed  the 
desert  in  search  of  a  fountain  to  assuage  their  thirst,  a 
grain-pit  to  sack.  Now  they  discover  a  more  temperate 
clime,  a  soil  that  is  watered  with  dew  every  night,  streams, 
and  green  trees.  The  indigenous  populations  are  not 
strong  enough  to  resist  them,  and  they  settle,  vagabond 
troops  brought  from  the  depths  of  the  unknown  like  a 

cloud  of  locusts  in  the  wind  of  the  desert What  critic 

will  be  able  to  retrace  the  migrations  of  these  locusts  ? 

Egyptology  has  not  yet  found  any  trace  of  the  Israelitic 
episode.  In  the  present  state  of  the  science  it  is  almost 
certain  that,  if  nothing  has  yet  been  found,  it  is  because 
nothing  exists.  Do  we  need  to  add  how  the  Biblical 
record,  in  all  that  relates  to  the  sojourn  in  Egypt  and  the 
exodus,  swarms  with  material  improbabilities,  geographical 
errors,  and  historical  impossibilities  ?  It  is  a  clear  proof 
of  an  imaginative  composition. 

We  may  grant  that  a  name,  the  possibility  of  a  fact, 


THE  NATIONAL  EPIC  OF  AN  IMPERIALISM     55 

may  have  been  saved  in  the  wreck  of  the  ancient  history 
of  Israel.  It  is  possible  that  these  nomads  may  have  pre- 
served, and  transmitted  to  their  descendants,  the  name  of 
some  great  chief  who  had  directed  their  migrations  in  a 
remote  age.  It  is  no  less  possible  that  the  memory  may 
have  survived  of  a  period  of  slavery  in  the  land  of  Egypt ; 
though  nothing  is  less  probable,  since  not  a  single  Egyptian 
monument  mentions  this  Israelitic  episode.  We  may,  if 
we  will,  retain  the  name  of  Moses,  but  that  is  all. 

Twelve  centuries  lie  between  the  recorded  facts  and 
the  age  in  which  they  were  recorded ;  the  critics  who  put 
back  the  composition  of  the  Mosaic  books  to  the  eighth 
century  will  say  eight,  instead  of  twelve,  centuries.  How 
many  generations  in  twelve,  even  eight,  centuries !  How 
many  generations  lost  in  the  vicissitudes  of  nomadic  life, 
of  barbarism,  or  of  a  most  rudimentary  civilisation !  Let 
us  understand  that  nothing  crosses  such  steppes  as  those. 

The  priests  of  Jerusalem  who,  after  Esdras,  undertook 
to  relate  the  origin  of  their  people,  or,  rather,  of  the  so- 
called  people  of  Israel,  would  thus  find  themselves  con- 
fronted, in  regard  to  the  time  before  the  Judges,  with  a 
yawning  abyss,  in  which  nothing  was  offered  to  them  but 
a  few  remote  traditions.  But  they  are  determined  at  all 
costs  to  glorify  this  ancient  Israel,  and  from  that  time, 
with  the  aid  of  these  vague  traditions,  they  proceed  to  an 
imaginative  creation. 

Does  anyone  hesitate  to  admit  that  the  priests  of  Jeru- 
salem would  deliberately,  shamelessly  forge  the  Mosaic 
history  ?  We  must  not  forget  that  we  are  dealing  with 
orientals  :  that  we  are  dealing  with  priests,  with  rulers 
who  have  no  idea  of  writing  history  in  the  modern  fashion, 
but  write  merely  to  establish  dogmas,  give  a  divine 
character  to  laws,  legitimise  institutions,  preach  a  national 
faith  to  a  people,  and  create  for  it  a  sublime  past. 

That  the  ancestors  of  the  Jewish  people,  the  people  of 
Israel,  should  have  come  from  Egypt,  guided  across  the 
desert  by  the  hand  of  Jahveh,  to  settle  in  Palestine,  will 


66  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

hardly  suffice  as  a  picture  of  their  origin  for  the  men  of 
Jerusalem.  Whence  came  the  Israelites  before  they 
settled  in  Egypt  ?  Had  not  Jahveh  chosen  the  people, 
which  he  was  to  cherish,  in  the  remote  ages  ?  Had  he 
not,  since  the  first  days  of  the  world,  promised  to  the 
ancient  Israelites  the  country  which  he  would  give  to 
their  descendants?  The  writers  of  the  Bible  do  not 
doubt  that  they  can  put  back  to  the  very  creation  of  the 
universe  the  promises  of  Jahveh  and  the  miraculous 
choice  of  Israel.  Thus  will  be  composed  the  history  of 
the  patriarchal  times,  the  account  of  the  first  days  of  the 
world. 

Possibly  the  Palestinian  traditions  furnished  one  or  two 
other  names ;  but,  though  the  imagination  of  Jerusalem 
continued  to  play  the  chief  part,  it  was  Babylon,  possibly 
Egypt,  perhaps  even  Persia,  that  would  now  contribute 
elements  to  the  story. 

Science  is  gradually  making  clear  the  share  that  the 
sages  of  Babylon  had  in  their  conception  of  the  origin  of 
humanity.  The  story  of  Moses  may  seem  to  imply  no 
foreign  document,  but  the  account  of  the  origin  of  man 
points  to  documents  of  Babylonian  origin ;  witness  the 
Deluge. 

The  Babylonian  civilisation,  like  that  of  Egypt,  sinks 
into  the  remotest  depths  of  history.  Countless  centuries 
old  at  the  time  when  the  writers  of  Jerusalem  were  but 
beginning  to  think  of  writing  a  history  of  their  ancestors, 
Babylon  had  civilised  the  west  of  Asia  all  around  it.  The 
kings  of  Persia,  instead  of  destroying  the  vast  city,  had 
often  resided  there.  Alexander  and  his  successors  respected 
its  great  antiquity,  and  it  was  still,  in  the  fourth  and  the 
third  centuries,  the  centre  of  western  Asia.  Though  it 
had  ceased  to  be  its  political  capital,  it  had  remained  the 
spiritual  metropolis.  From  immemorial  time  science,  art, 
and  a  powerfully-organised  religion  lived  under  the  shelter 
of  its  walls.  Heir  of  the  ancient  cities  of  Chaldaea,  it  has 
been  the  religious,  artistic,  and  scientific  teacher  of  Asia. 


THE  NATIONAL  EPIC  OF  AN  IMPEEIALISM     57 

In  the  fourth  century  it  is  still  ruled  by  its  own  laws ;  the 
Persians,  its  masters,  respect  the  legislation  that  had  been 
promulgated,  fifteen  hundred  years  before,  by  the  Baby- 
lonian king  Hammurabi.  The  little  States  of  western 
Syria  accept  this  influence,  like  the  others,  and  the  Jews 
are  affected  by  it  even  more  than  the  others.  A  Jewish 
colony  lived  at  Babylon ;  they  are  the  descendants  of  the 
men  of  Judah  deported  in  588  by  Nabuchodonosor.  There 
is  unbroken  intercourse  between  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem 
and  the  Jews  of  Babylon ;  the  Jews  of  Babylon  continue 
to  teach  those  of  Jerusalem  the  legends,  laws,  and  sciences 
of  Babylon. 

The  men  of  Jerusalem  could  therefore  learn  from  Baby- 
lon certain  legends  about  the  early  ages  of  humanity,  the 
Deluge,  and  certain  movements  of  peoples  across  Asia ; 
but  could  they  learn  from  it  anything  concerning  their 
own  ancestors  ?  Is  it  conceivable  that  the  Babylonians 
possessed  information  on  the  migrations  of  the  Israelitic 
nomads  in  the  time  of  Hammurabi,  or  in  the  time  of  the 
Kassite  kings?  In  point  of  fact,  Assyriology  is  still 
silent  as  to  the  adventures  of  the  Bene-Israel  before  the 
time  of  Solomon.  The  amount  of  information  that  the 
writers  of  Jerusalem  may  have  received  from  the  Baby- 
lonian civilisation  is,  therefore,  easy  to  determine.  Of  the 
ancestors  of  the  great  family  of  western  Asia  which  is 
called  Semitic  they  might  learn  something  ;  of  the  ances- 
tors of  the  Israelitic  tribes  in  particular  they  could  learn 
nothing. 

As  to  the  Medo-Persic  science  and  religion,  it  is  certain 
that  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  were  acquainted  with  it,  but 
its  influence  seems  to  have  been  rather  theological,  and 
came  later. 

Gathering,  therefore,  on  the  one  hand,  from  the  reminis- 
cences of  the  cities  of  Palestine  certain  fragments  of 
legends,  and  possibly  a  few  vague  names,  such  as  that  of 
Moses,  and  from  the  science  of  Babylon,  and  perhaps  that 
of   Egypt,  on   the   other   hand,  a   few  traditions  which 


58  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

Assyriology  and  Egyptology  are  gradually  detaching  from 
the  Biblical  narratives,  they  proposed  to  make  amends  for 
the  lack  of  a  national  past  of  their  own,  and,  in  view  of  the 
dogmas  which  they  purported  to  illustrate,  in  the  fashion 
of  their  contemporaries,  and  the  ambitions  that  they 
resolved  to  justify,  to  erect  in  freedom  the  monument  of 
their  pretended  past. 

Thus,  although  the  historical,  legendary,  and  mythical 
framework  of  the  Mosaic  books  is  borrowed  from  the 
legendary  and  fabulous  histories  of  other  peoples,  they 
are  in  substance  profoundly  national.  These  legends 
have  been  borrowed  from  their  Palestinian  neighbours 
only  with  a  view  to  annexing  them ;  from  their  Baby- 
lonian ancestors  only  to  enrich  themselves  with  their 
glory.  All  this  legislation,  theory  of  origins,  legitimising 
of  institutions,  lessons  drawn  from  events,  and  justification 
and  glorification  of  the  ambitions  of  Jerusalem,  will  be  so 
fiercely  national  that  this  epic,  created  afresh  or  borrowed 
from  foreigners  by  this  people  without  a  past,  seems  to  us 
as  profoundly  Jewish  as  if  it  had  really  been  born  of  the 
forty  centuries'  past  which  the  writers  of  Jerusalem 
pleased  to  imagine.  The  books  of  the  law  are  the 
programme  of  the  imperialism  of  the  men  of  Jerusalem. 


§  2.  The  Jeliovist-Elohist  Period} 

If  the  date  458,  which  tradition  assigns  to  the  arrival 
of  Esdras,  corresponds  to  the  great  nationalist  movement 
from  which  Judaism  issued,  it  is  to  the  generation  that 
lived  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  that  we  must 
grant  the  high  honour  of  having  written  the  first  pages  of 
the  Mosaic  books.  Above  all  things,  the  priests  who  then 
governed  wished  to  impose  upon  the  people  of  Jerusalem, 
not  merely  by  force,  but  by  persuasion — that  is  to  say,  by 

^  See  Appendix  IV. 


THE  JEHOVIST-ELOHIST  PEKIOD  59 

faith — that  fidehty  to  the  patron-god,  Jahveh,  the  soul  of 
the  Jewish  State,  in  which  they  recognised  the  supreme 
condition  of  the  existence  of  their  country ;  they  must 
perpetuate,  as  a  hving  and  eternal  reality,  the  teaching 
of  Esdras.  Jahveh  punishing  his  people  for  their  unfaith- 
fulness to  him,  and  restoring  them  for  their  fidelity  to 
him,  was  the  great  lesson  with  which  they  needed  to 
penetrate  the  Jewish  people.  And  these  terrible  priests, 
who  enforced  nationalism  under  pain  of  death,  wished, 
instead  of  legislating  in  the  abstract,  to  give  the  precept 
at  once  in  the  form  of  example. 

Thus  was  the  Bible  begun. 

The  priests  of  Jerusalem  wished  to  enact :  "  Jahveh  is 
the  national  god  of  Jerusalem ;  Jerusalem  can  have  no 
other  god  but  Jahveh." 

What  they  said  was  :  "  Your  fathers  were  taken  away 
by  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  because  they  had  forsaken 
Jahveh." 

They  wished  to  enact :  "  You  shall  not  have  foreign 

wives You  shall  make  no  image  of  your  god You 

shall  not  offer  the  holocaust  to  your  god  save  in  his  house 
of  Jerusalem." 

What  they  said  was :  "  Your  town  was  burned  down, 
your  fathers  were  slaughtered,  your  nation  was  destroyed, 
because  you  had  taken  foreign  wives,  because  you  had 
worshipped  images,  because  you  had  burned  the  fat  of 
your  flocks  under  every  high  tree  and  on  every  green 
hill." 

Thus  did  they  undertake  to  relate  to  the  people  the 
story  of  its  past,  in  order  to  give  it  an  example  and  a 
lesson.  In  following  the  development  of  the  many 
narratives,  the  combination  of  which  afterwards  formed 
the  earliest  books  of  the  Bible,  we  shall  see  the  unfolding 
of  the  series  of  dogmatic  theses  of  the  aristocracy  of 
Jerusalem  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries. 

After  the  manner  of  the  sages  of  Babylon,  the  priests 
of  Jerusalem  made  their  history  go  back  to  the  creation 


60  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

of  the  world.  The  moshlim  narrated  with  hght  heart  the 
marvellous  adventures  of  primitive  ages,  which  had  for 
the  most  part  been  taken  from  Babylon.  But  the  main 
object  of  the  priests  was,  by  means  of  complete  genealo- 
gies, to  connect  the  patriarchs,  the  fathers  of  the  people 
of  Israel,  with  the  first  man.  No  link  in  the  chain  must 
be  wanting ;  and,  unfortunately,  the  different  moshlim 
invented  different  genealogies,  which,  in  spite  of  their 
disagreement,  were  equally  preserved  for  our  veneration. 

From  the  time  of  Noah  and  the  Deluge  we  find  the 
theory  of  the  Pact  making  its  appearance.  The  Deluge 
is  over,  and  Jahveh  puts  before  the  patriarch,  for  the 
first  time,  the  bases  of  the  famous  alliance. 

Let  us  explain  what  we  mean. 

The  history  of  the  Jewish  people  from  its  constitution 
as  a  people — that  is  to  say,  from  Esdras — until  the  time  of 
its  destruction,  the  history  of  the  Jewish  soul,  such  as  it 
was  framed  amid  the  civilisations  of  the  east  and  as, 
afterwards,  in  its  Christian  form,  it  was  imposed  on  the 
Graeco-Eoman  world,  is  the  development  of  a  leading 
idea,  which  shows  itself  from  the  childish  legends  of 
Judges  to  the  death-rattle  of  the  Judseo-Christian 
apocalypses.  This  is  the  Pact — the  compact  agreed  upon 
between  Jahveh  and  the  Israel  which  symbolised  the 
ideal  of  Jerusalem.  Theologians  speak  of  it  as  the 
Covenant. 

Jahveh  will  punish  Israel,  if  Israel  is  unfaithful  to 
him ;  if  Israel  is  faithful  to  Jahveh,  he  will  reward  Israel. 
But  it  must  be  clearly  understood  that  the  Jews  were  not 
thinking  of  vague  promises  made  by  the  deity  ;  there  was 
question  of  a  real  treaty,  an  act  drawn  up  in  good  and 
due  form,  a  private  deed,  signed,  read,  and  approved,  the 
considerations  and  clauses  of  which  will  fill  the  whole  of 
the  Judaic  literature.  Only,  in  the  fourth  century, 
Jahveh  merely  promises  the  Jewish  people  the  free  and 
peaceful  possession  of  Palestine. 

With  the  legend  of  Abraham  the  theory  of  the  Pact 


THE  JEHOVIST-ELOHIST  PEEIOD  61 

reaches  its  full  development,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fourth  century.  Abraham  is  brought  by  Jahveh  from 
Ur  in  Chaldaea  to  take  possession,  for  his  descendants,  of 
the  country  that  the  god  reserves  for  them.  A  score  of 
times  the  god  gives  his  divine  word  to  the  patriarch : — 

In  the  same  day  Jahveh  made  a  covenant  with 
Abraham,  saying:  Unto  thy  seed  do  I  give  this  land 

And  I  will  establish  my  covenant  between  mo  and  thee 
and  thy  seed  after  thee  in  their  generations  for  an  ever- 
lasting covenant,  to  be  a  god  unto  thee,  and  to  thy  seed 
after  thee.^ 

The  choosing  of  Israel,  the  fundamental  dogma  of 
Judaism,  is  the  starting-point  of  the  Pact.  Jahveh  has 
chosen  Israel  among  the  peoples  from  the  earliest  time ; 
and  now,  if  Israel  observes  the  law  of  Jahveh,  Jahveh 
will  secure  its  happiness  in  the  land  which  he  has  given 
to  it.  We  know  what  is  meant  by  Israel.  At  the  time 
when  the  mashal  of  Abraham  were  written  Israel  has  no 
real  existence ;  it  is  the  myth  that  symbolises  the  future 
kingdom  of  which  the  aristocracy  of  Jerusalem  dreams. 
The  choice  of  Israel  has,  therefore,  two  stages :  in  the 
first  stage  it  is  the  union  of  the  populations  of  Palestine 
in  one  single  kingdom  by  the  Jewish  people,  under  its 
hegemony ;  in  the  second  stage  it  is  the  assurance  of  an 
endless  prosperity  to  this  new  kingdom  amid  the 
kingdoms  of  the  earth. 

The  writers  who,  in  the  fifth  century,  composed  the 
earliest  Biblical  narratives  aimed  at  proving  this  choice  of 
their  people,  by  putting  it  at  the  very  source  of  history. 
But  they  were  not  less  concerned  to  specify  the  degrees 
of  subordination  of  the  States  which  must  make  up  the 
kingdom  of  their  dream,  and  the  degree  of  vassalage  of 
the  surrounding  States.  Bound  about  them  are  the  little 
peoples  which  they  regard  as  brother-peoples,  believe  to 
belong  to  the  Israelitic  stock,  and  propose  to  absorb  in 
their  ideal  Israel.     A  little  farther  off  are  their  neigh- 

^  Genesis  xv.  18  ;  xvii.  7,  and  passim. 


62  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

hours,  the  congenital  peoples  of  Moah,  Ammon,  and 
Edom.  Legend  says  that  David  reigned  over  them ; 
vi^hy  should  they  not  some  day  be  subject  to  the  hegemony 
of  Jerusalem  ?  The  moshlim  of  Jerusalem  will  tell  how 
Moab,  Ammon,  and  Edom  are  cousins,  or,  rather,  more 
lowly  brothers,  younger  sons  who  owe  obedience  to  their 
elders.  Beyond  them  there  is  Syria,  into  which  Jewish 
action  is  already  penetrating ;  for  Syria  also  is  a  country 
of  the  same  family. 

These  relationships  are  symbolised  in  a  series  of  myths. 

Abraham,  the  mythic  father  of  the  people  of  Israel, 
was  not  the  only  son  of  Thare  (or,  as  is  now  more  com- 
monly said,  Terah)  when  he  left  Ur  in  Chaldaea  to  come 
to  Palestine ;  he  brought  with  him  Lot,  his  brother's  son. 
Now,  Lot  is  the  father  of  Ammon  and  Moab.  But 
Ammon  and  Moab  are  the  sons  of  incest ;  the  myth  of 
the  daughters  of  Lot  puts  in  their  place,  in  this  great 
table  of  origins,  the  lower  tribes  of  Moab  and  Ammon. 

Abraham  himself  has  two  sons.  One  is  Isaac,  the 
legitimate  son,  the  heir  of  Abraham,  the  chosen  of  Jahveh ; 
the  other  is  Ishmael,  son  of  a  slave,  bastard,  humbler 
brother  of  Isaac — Ishmael,  the  father  of  many  Arab 
tribes. 

Isaac,  again,  has  two  sons.  Esau,  deprived  of  his  birth- 
right, is  the  father  of  Edom ;  Jacob,  the  favourite  of  the 
god,  is  destined  to  continue  the  family. 

Jacob  himself  is  the  eponymic  father  of  the  privileged 
people.  He  is  Israel  himself ;  for  the  name  Israel,  which 
the  priests  of  Jerusalem  have  revived  in  order  to  give  it 
to  the  former  kingdom  of  David — that  is  to  say,  to  the 
collection  of  Palestinian  States  which  they  hope  to  unite 
under  their  hegemony — is  now  projected  upon  the  ancestor 
Jacob.  Israel  becomes  the  second  name,  the  surname 
given  by  Jahveh  himself  to  the  patriarch  Jacob. 

And  Jahveh  said  to  Jacob :  What  is  thy  name  ?     And 
he  said,  Jacob. 

And  he  said  :  Thy  name  shall  be  called  no  more  Jacob, 


THE  JEHOVIST-ELOHIST  PEEIOD  63 

but  Israel ;  that  is  to  say,  conqueror  of  God !  Because 
thou  hast  fought  with  God  and  with  men,  and  hast 
prevailed.' 

On  that  day  the  definition  is  completed.  Israel  is  the 
solemn  name  of  the  eponymic  patriarch  in  whom  the 
Jerusalemites  of  the  fourth  century  symbolised  the  Pales- 
tinian kingdom  which  they  aspired  to  found  on  the  model 
of  the  ancient  empire  of  David. 

With  Jacob-Israel  we  come  to  the  very  heart  of  the 
family  which  the  men  of  Jerusalem  are  ambitious  to  form. 
The  people  of  Israel  is  created.  Jacob  has  twelve  children, 
and  these  twelve  children  are  the  fathers  of  the  twelve 
tribes  of  Israel,  and  give  them  their  names — Buben, 
Simeon,  Levi,  Judah,  Joseph,  Benjamin,  etc.  From  that 
time,  through  the  whole  of  Jewish  history,  the  relations 
between  the  different  Israelitic  groups  will  be  reflected  in 
all  the  Biblical  narratives.  At  one  time  Joseph  will  be 
exalted,  at  another  time  he  will  be  cast  in  the  shade  ; 
though  he  is  the  hero  of  a  celebrated  mashal,  this  eponymic 
father  of  a  northern  tribe  will  never  be  raised  to  the  rank 
of  ancestral  patriarch,  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob. 
Benjamin  will  be  alternately  praised  and  vilified.  Simeon 
will  become  the  expression  of  the  Jewish  ambitions  in  the 
southern  territories.  Judah  himself  will  not  always  be 
equally  glorified,  and  he  will  experience  the  severity  of 
the  depreciating  myths,  when  the  priest-writers  are  minded 
to  rebuke  their  people ;  but  at  the  origin  of  the  tribe  will 
be  placed  the  myth  of  Thamar,  with  the  purpose  of  cele- 
brating, by  a  providential  and  almost  miraculous  inter- 
vention, the  birth  of  the  ancestors  of  Jerusalem. 

Nothing  is  more  comical  than  the  concern  of  com- 
mentators to  locate  on  the  Palestinian  territory  these 
twelve  tribes,  of  which  scarcely  one  half  had  a  real 
existence,  and  which,  in  the  mind  of  the  fourth-century 
writers,  are  only  the  expression  of  political  views.  For- 
merly— a   long    time   ago — geological   and   astronomical 

'  Genesis  xxxii.  27-28. 


64  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

truths  were  sought  in  Genesis ;  later  an  effort  was  made 
to  reconcile  the  Bible  and  geology.  To-day  people  seek 
ethnographical  and  anthropological  indications  in  Genesis, 
as  if  the  Biblical  writers  had  been  better  at  ethnography 
than  geology ;  as  if  the  Bible  were  anything  else  but 
dogmas  illustrated  by  fables. 

We  have  only  quoted  a  few  instances.  The  early 
Biblical  narratives  are  encumbered  with  genealogies  which 
are  all  dogmatic,  and  all  aim  at  expressing  the  pretensions 
of  the  aristocracy  of  Jerusalem.  If  there  are  many  con- 
tradictions between  these  genealogies,  these  ethnic  myths, 
it  is  because  the  Bible  was  not  composed  by  one  single 
school,  nor  in  one  single  day ;  it  is  because  each  genera- 
tion, each  school,  inscribed  its  ambitions  therein.  Such 
is  the  myth  of  the  sons  of  Noah,  one  of  the  last  born  of 
the  Mosaic  myths. 

Everywhere,  in  the  course  of  their  wanderings  over  the 
land  of  Palestine,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  lay  the  first 
stones,  in  some  way,  of  the  ancient  sanctuaries  of  Jahveh 
scattered  over  Palestine,  for  which  it  was  necessary  to 
find  a  patriarchal  origin. 

Let  us  try  to  understand  how  the  Jerusalemitic  writers 
of  the  fourth  century  could,  and  must,  glorify  the  sanc- 
tuaries of  their  neighbours.  Commentators  see  in  that 
an  irrefutable  proof  of  the  non-Judaic  origin  of  a  large 
part  of  Genesis ;  we  see  in  it  a  proof  of  the  contrary.  In 
the  fourth  century  these  famous  sanctuaries  had  almost 
all  disappeared,  or  were  in  ruins.  Most  of  them  were 
mere  memories.  Bersabee,  Hebron,  Bethel,  Gabaon, 
Mispha,  Galaad,  and  Mahanaim  no  longer  existed ;  vener- 
able ruins,  they  could  cause  no  apprehension  to  the  clerical 
aristocracy  at  Jerusalem.  On  the  other  hand,  they  are 
careful  not  to  seek  a  sacred  origin  for  Samaria,  the  rival 
city ;  and  Sichem,  a  sub-prefecture  of  Samaria,  too  ancient 
and  celebrated  to  be  omitted,  is  most  frequently  mentioned 
unfavourably.  For  Jerusalem,  on  the  contrary,  they  find,  in 
Melchisedech  and  the  sacrifice  of  Moriah,  especially  sacred 


THE  JEHOVIST-ELOHIST  PERIOD  65 

antecedents.  The  old  sanctuaries  celebrated  by  the  aris- 
tocracy of  Jerusalem  are  almost  always  vanished  or  fallen 
rivals,  whose  extinct  glory  does  but  exalt  the  primacy  of 
Jerusalem,  in  preparing  the  way  for  it. 

But  in  collecting  the  ancient  legends  of  Palestine,  and 
appropriating  the  old  memories  of  neighbouring  cities,  the 
priests  of  Jerusalem  are,  as  we  know,  pursuing  their  secret 
aim.  They,  a  people  without  a  past,  must  enrich  them- 
selves with  the  legendary  and  national  treasures  of  the 
tribes  that  they  dream  of  assimilating ;  they  will  gather 
about  themselves,  and  under  their  leadership,  this  land  of 
Palestine  that  they  are  ambitious  to  conquer ;  they  are 
more  than  ever  determined,  in  incorporating  in  their  work 
the  traditions  and  dreams  of  congenital  and  neighbouring 
peoples,  to  realise  at  some  near  date  their  ideal  of  a  people 
of  Israel. 

We  ought  also  to  say  a  word  of  the  etymologies  that 
abound  in  the  Mosaic  books — etymologies  of  which  hardly 
a  single  one  has  been  admitted  by  philologists,  plays  upon 
words  such  as  primitive  peoples  love,  puns  with  a  purpose 
of  proving  something.  But  it  is  enough  to  understand 
that  everything  in  this  Bible,  in  which  some  have  thought 
to  find  history,  is  dogmatic,  purely  dogmatic. 

The  marvellous  thing  is  that  the  patriarchal  legends 
have  grown  round  these  theses  in  a  delicious  flowering  of 
the  oriental  imagination.  Doubtless,  in  this  never-chang- 
ing east,  the  Jews  of  the  fourth  century  did  not  imagine, 
in  their  more  remote  legends,  caravans  that  differed  from 
those  which  they  saw  passing  at  the  foot  of  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem ;  and  the  gates  of  the  town  opened  at  evening 
to  the  same  nomad  flock-drivers,  seeking  rest  and  refresh- 
ment. Yet  the  theorists  who  related  the  vagabond  origins, 
in  which  they  found  it  expedient  to  fix  their  dogmas,  were 
at  the  same  time  poets.  Thus  these  flowers,  the  prettiest 
that  the  east  has  produced,  came  into  the  light :  Abraham 
wandering  in  the  valleys  of  Palestine,  Eliasur  and  Rebecca, 
Joseph  and  his  brethren,  etc. — those  beautiful  stories  whose 

F 


66  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

profound  charm  has  won  the  soul.  Strange  genius,  in 
which  the  narrowest  dogmatism  has  clothed  itself  with  so 
delicious  a  mantle  of  idylls  ! 

The  great  episode  of  Joseph  closes  the  patriarchal 
legend.  With  it,  in  our  Bible,  the  book  of  Genesis 
terminates.  The  following  book,  Exodus,  is  a  collection 
of  narratives  relating  to  the  departure  from  Egypt  and 
the  crossing  of  the  desert ;  Moses  is  its  hero. 

Everyone  will  remember  the  scenario. 

The  people  of  Israel  languishes  in  the  service  of  Egypt. 
Jahveh  gives  Moses  the  mission  to  deliver  them.  Episode 
of  the  ten  plagues  of  Egypt.  Passage  of  the  Ked  Sea. 
After  that  the  people  of  Israel  wander  in  the  Sinaitic 
peninsula,  under  the  lead  of  Moses.  But  the  writers  of 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  who  were  the  first  to 
relate  the  vicissitudes  of  the  exodus,  knew  nothing  of  the 
revelation  on  Sinai.  For  them  the  sacred  mountain  on 
which  Jahveh  appears  to  Moses  is  called  Horeb.  It  is  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  the  critics  that  the  mention  of  Sinai 
suffices  to  discredit  a  later  series  of  narratives — the  series 
which  we  shall  call  the  levitical. 

Here  are  expounded  a  certain  number  of  laws  which 
the  priests  of  Jerusalem  wished  to  legitimise,  and  which 
they  describe  as  dictated  by  Jahveh  himself  to  Moses. 
Let  us  add  that  they  occupy  only  a  small  part  of  our 
actual  Exodus. 

Our  whole  Leviticus  and  part  of  the  actual  book  of 
Numbers  belong  to  a  later  period.  The  sequel  to  the 
preceding  narratives  is  found  in  the  second  half  of  the 
book  of  Numbers.  Forty  years  have  elapsed ;  the  people 
of  Israel  still  wander  in  the  desert ;  they  reach  Cades  ; 
fights  with  the  natives ;  arrival  on  the  plains  of  Moab, 
near  the  Jordan,  opposite  Jericho.  There  Moses  dies, 
after  placing  his  hands  on  the  head  of  Joshua.  From 
that  time  the  children  of  Israel  obey  Joshua. 

The  book  of  Deuteronomy  is  altogether  later,  and 
certain  chapters  of  Joshua  have  preserved  the  narratives 


THE  JEHOVIST-ELOHIST  PEEIOD  67 

of  the  earliest  Biblical  writers.  Under  the  leadership  of 
Joshua  the  Israelites  conquer  the  promised  land.  Jericho 
is  taken,  its  walls  falling  at  the  sound  of  the  sacred 
trumpets ;  the  Israelites  settle  in  the  promised  land,  the 
twelve  tribes  dividing  it  more  or  less  between  them. 
Joshua  dies,  and  is  buried  in  Mount  Ephraim. 

Nothing  is  more  familiar  than  this  series  of  episodes  of 
which  Moses  and  Joshua  are  the  heroes.  The  group  of 
priestly  writers  who  first  offered  them  as  a  lesson  to  the 
people  of  Jerusalem  saw  in  them,  especially,  an  illustration 
of  the  famous  compact  between  Jahveh  and  his  people,  the 
same  covenant  which  other  priestly  writers  had  traced  to 
the  patriarchs.  The  Israelites,  saved  from  Egypt,  guided 
in  the  desert,  and  endowed  with  the  soil  of  Palestine, 
exhibit  the  benevolent,  but  definitive,  act  by  which 
Jahveh  consecrates  to  himself  the  people  he  has  chosen. 
Henceforth  the  Jewish  literature  will  unceasingly  remind 
the  Jews  how  they  owe  to  Jahveh  the  land  they  occupy 
and  their  very  existence.  Israel  belongs  to  Jahveh  as  one 
who  is  saved  from  death  belongs  to  his  saviour ;  so,  at 
least,  the  theology  of  Jerusalem  will  have  it. 

The  earliest  legislation  of  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  is 
thus  found  to  be  inserted  in  the  midst  of  the  Mosaic 
episodes.  The  priests,  as  we  said,  wanted  to  represent 
as  dictated  formerly  by  Jahveh  the  laws  which  they 
wished  to  impose  on  their  contemporaries,  and  we  are 
not  astonished  at  their  procedure.  There  is  no  legislator 
in  ancient  times  who  did  not  assign  a  divine  origin  to  his 
work.  Why  should  the  Jerusalemitic  legislators  of  the 
fourth  century  act  otherwise  ? 

But  it  was  equally  important  to  make  these  laws  the 
very  conditions  of  the  compact  between  his  people  and 
Jahveh. 

And  Jahveh  said  :  Behold,  I  make  a  covenant ;  before 
all  thy  people  I  will  do  marvels,  such  as  have  not  been 
done  in  all  the  earth,  nor  in  any  nation  :  and  all  the  people 
shall  see  how  terrible  is  the  work  of  Jahveh 


68  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

Thou  shalt  worship  no  other  god :  for  Jahveh,  whose 
name  is  Jealous,  is  a  jealous  god/ 

Thou  shalt  not  make  a  covenant  with  the  inhabitants 
of  the  land,  and  thou  shalt  not  take  their  daughters  unto 
thy  sons ^ 

Thou  shalt  make  thee  no  molten  gods.^ 

The  feast  of  unleavened  bread  thou  shalt  keep :  seven 
days  thou  shalt  eat  unleavened  bread ^ 

Every  first-born  of  a  mother  is  mine,  and  every  firstling 

among  thy  cattle,  whether  ox  or  sheep,  that  is  male 

All  the  first-born  of  thy  sons  thou  shalt  redeem,  and  none 
shall  appear  before  me  empty.'' 

Six  days  thou  shalt  work,  but  on  the  seventh  day  thou 
shalt  rest ;  in  earing  time  and  in  harvest  thou  shalt  rest.^ 

And  thou  shalt  observe  the  feast  of  weeks,  of  the  first- 
fruits  of  wheat  harvest,  and  the  feast  of  ingathering  at 
the  year's  end.^ 

Thrice  in  the  year  shall  all  your  menchildren  appear 
before  your  lord  Jahveh,  the  god  of  Israel.  Eor  I  will 
cast  out  the  nations  before  thee,  and  enlarge  thy  borders  : 
neither  shall  any  man  desire  thy  land,  when  thou  shalt 
go  up  to  appear  before  Jahveh,  thy  god,  thrice  in  the 
year.* 

Thou  shalt  not  offer  the  blood  of  my  sacrifice  with 
leaven ;  neither  shall  the  sacrifice  of  the  feast  of  the 
passover  be  left  unto  the  morning.^ 

The  first  of  the  first-fruits  of  thy  land  thou  shalt  bring 
unto  the  house  of  Jahveh  thy  god.^° 

Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  his  mother's  milk." 

And  Jahveh  said  unto  Moses :  Write  thou  these  words : 
for  after  the  tenour  of  these  words  I  have  made  a 
covenant  with  thee  and  with  Israel.'^ 

All  these  are  religious  laws,  it  will  be  said.  They  are 
not,  because  at  Jerusalem  religious  institutions  are  but 
the  form  of  the  civil  institutions ;  because  the  rulers  are 

^  Primordial  law  nationalising  the  cult  of  Jahveh. 

^  Prohibition  of  mixed  marriages. 

*  Prohibition  of  images.  *  Feast  of  the  Passover. 

*  Law  of  taxes.  ^  Law  of  the  Sabbath. 
'  The  three  great  feasts,  that  of  Easter  recalled. 

®  The  three  pilgrimages.  ^  A  detail  of  the  Passover. 

^°  Lax  of  taxes. 

"  A  law  the  meaning  of  which,  Reuss  says,  was  unknown  even  to  the 
ancient  Jewish  commentators.  We  believe  that  it  refers  to  a  proverb,  of 
which  the  meaning  has  been  lost. 

"  Exodus  xxxiv.  10-27. 


THE  JEHOVIST-BLOHIST  PEEIOD  69 

priests,  and  we  know  that  to  worship  Jahveh  means  to 
consecrate  one's  soul  to  one's  country,  Jerusalem,  But, 
from  the  first  feeble  utterance  of  the  Jewish  legisla- 
tion, we  see,  among  other  laws,  the  Utopian  law :  the 
ideal  law  by  the  side  of  the  practical  law.  In  demanding 
that  the  males  shall  come  in  pilgrimage  thrice  a  year 
from  the  country  round  Jerusalem  to  the  one  temple  (for 
it  is  a  question  of  the  one  temple,  whatever  the  commen- 
tators may  have  thought  of  it),  Jahveh  promises  them 
that  no  enemy  shall  profit  by  their  absence  to  sack  their 
houses  and  ravish  their  women. 

Another  small,  but  slightly  longer,  code^  deals  with 
certain  questions  of  the  civil  order.  It  regulates  the 
position  of  servants ;  it  punishes  homicide,  theft,  blows 
and  wounds,  seduction,  sorcery,  bestiality,  and  usury ;  it 
resumes  the  prescriptions  of  the  preceding  code,  and  adds 
the  extraordinary  utopianism  of  the  sabbatic  year.  The 
Jews  are  not  only  enjoined  to  dedicate  to  Jahveh  the 
seventh  day  of  the  week,  but  they  are  also  commanded  to 
consecrate  a  whole  year  in  every  seven  years : — 

Six  years  thou  shalt  sow  thy  land,  and  shalt  gather  in 
the  fruits  thereof :  but  the  seventh  year  thou  shalt  let  it 
rest  and  lie  still.^ 

At  a  later  date  the  legislators  of  Jerusalem  will 
guarantee  their  people  that  Jahveh  will,  in  the  sixth  year, 
give  them  a  double  harvest,  sufficient  to  feed  them  during 
the  seventh. 

Lastly,  a  number  of  enactments  are  devoted  to  protect- 
ing the  man  whom  our  translations  call  "the  stranger," 
and  who  is  really  only  the  Judaising  foreigner.  For  a 
people  who  were  ambitious  and  hopeful  to  annex  the 
surrounding  peoples  it  was  necessary  to  protect  foreigners, 
when  they  began  to  accept  Jewish  ways.  Jerusalem  is 
still  but  a  town  with  its  immediate  surroundings  ;  but  it 
dreams  of  becoming  the  capital  of  a  great  country,  and 

'  Exodus  xxi,  1  to  xxiii.  19.  ^  Exodus  xxjii.  10,  11. 


70  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

the  viashal  of  Jerusalem  always  think  of  the  people  of 
Israel  which  does  not  yet  exist,  except  as  an  ideal. 
Theoretically,  the  Mosaic  laws  are  made  for  the  whole  of 
the  States  of  Palestine ;  in  practice,  they  are  only  valid 
for  Jerusalem  and  its  immediate  district.  Theoretically, 
the  Palestinian  neighbours  are  brothers ;  in  practice,  they 
are  still  foreigners.  The  protection  of  the  Judaising 
foreigner  at  Jerusalem  is  a  transitory  arrangement.  It  is 
an  accommodation  of  the  utopia  to  realities. 

The  Pact,  formerly  concluded  by  the  patriarchs,  now 
signed  by  Moses,  is  afterwards  renewed  by  Joshua. 
After  delivering  Israel  from  the  bondage  of  Egypt, 
Jahveh  gives  it  the  good  and  spacious  land,  the  land 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  the  land  of  the  Canaanites, 
Hethites,  Amorrhites,  Pheresites,  Hevites,  Jebusites,  and 
Gergezites. 

What  historical  value  is  there  in  this  list  ?  Possibly 
they  have  founded  erudite  discussions  on  narratives  in 
which  dogmas  are  covered  with  a  mantle  of  fable.  If 
peoples  who  attained  to  some  idea  of  history,  the  Greeks 
and  the  Latins,  were  unable  to  learn  anything  of  their 
past  beyond  a  few  centuries,  how  can  we  suppose  that 
Orientals,  Jews  entirely  lacking  the  historical  sense, 
can,  apart  from  a  miraculous  communication,  and 
apart  from  what  was  afforded  by  Chaldsea  and  Egypt, 
have  learned  anything  about  a  period  that  was  contem- 
porary with  nomadism,  a  period  one  thousand  years 
before  their  time  ? 

Penan,  with  his  habit  of  ridicuhng  the  improbabilities 
of  the  exegetic  theses  which  he  adopted,  was  astonished 
that  there  was  no  mention  of  a  revolt  of  Canaan  in  the 
history  of  Israel.  The  Canaanites,  Hethites,  Amorrhites, 
Pheresites,  Hevites,  Jebusites,  and  Gergezites  are,  in  the 
Mosaic  epic,  the  characters  which  the  imagination  of  the 
Jerusalem  moshlim  of  the  fifth  century  has  summoned  to 
play  a  part :  to  explain  that  Jahveh  had,  as  an  effect  of 
his  favour,  given  to  the  Israelites  a  country  to  which  they 


THE  JEHOVIST-ELOHIST  PERIOD  71 

had  no  other  right  than  this  favour  of  Jahveh.  Later,  in 
the  deuteronomic  period,  these  supposed  peoples,  gathered 
together  under  the  generic  name  of  Canaanites,  will  serve 
to  illustrate  another  dogma.  At  no  time  are  they  any- 
thing but  puppets  in  the  hands  of  the  priests  of  Jerusalem. 

We  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  never  were  any 
Canaanites,  Hethites,  or  Amorrhites.  The  Hethites 
formed  a  great  empire  in  the  north  of  Palestine  at  the 
time  of  the  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  invasions.  The 
Canaanites  seem  to  have  come  from  Chaldaea,  and  are 
related  to  the  Hyksos  who  invaded  Egypt.  But  the  Bible 
knows  nothing  of  these  historical  Hethites  and  Canaanites. 
It  knows  next  to  nothing  of  the  Hethite  empire ;  it  is 
unable  to  distinguish  the  Hethites  from  the  most  miserable 
tribes  of  Palestine.  The  names  only  are  real ;  the  rest  is 
fiction,  and  fiction  with  a  purpose.  The  fact  is  that  they 
needed  an  appendage  to  Israel.  They  had  taken  from 
the  past  the  old  and  disused  name  of  Israelites,  and  the 
Israelites  had  become  the  chosen  people  of  Jahveh.  In 
the  same  way  they  take  from  the  past  the  forgotten  and 
lost  name  of  Canaanites.  The  Canaanites  become  objects 
of  disgrace  to  Jahveh ;  as  a  kind  of  theological  helots, 
they  are  the  rejected  of  Judaism.  Canaan  is  the  counter- 
part to  Israel.  Palestine  will  henceforward  bear  two 
equally  unreal  and  dogmatic  names.  Before  Jahveh 
makes  a  gift  of  it  to  his  people,  it  will  be  called  Canaan ; 
afterwards,  it  will  be  known  as  Israel. 

After  the  narrative  of  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  the 
history  of  Israelitic  antiquities  is  continued  in  a  new 
cycle  of  epic  episodes. 

Judges  was  the  name  given  to  the  legendary  heroes  of 
Palestinian  extraction  who  had  lived  in  the  land  of  Israel 
before  the  establishment  of  royalty.  Such  were  Gideon 
and  his  son  Abimelech,  Deborah  the  prophetess,  Jephtha, 
who  sacrificed  his  daughter  to  Jahveh,  Samson,  the  lover 
of  Delilah  the  Philistine,  Samuel,  whose  sombre  figure 
would  afterwards  grow  to  terrible  proportions. 


72  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

Does  anyone  question  the  purely,  absolutely  dogmatic 
intention  of  the  moslilim  ?  Let  us  see  how  the  book  of 
Judges  will  presently  speak  : — 

The  children  of  Israel  went  every  man  unto  his  inherit- 
ance: and  the  people  served  Jahveh  for  many  days 

And  there  arose  another  generation  after  them  which 
knew  not  Jahveh,  nor  yet  the  works  which  he  had  done 
for  Israel.  And  the  children  of  Israel  did  evil  in  the 
sight  of  Jahveh,  and  served  the  Baals,  and  they  forsook 
Jahveh,  and  followed  other  gods  of  the  gods  of  the  people 
that  were  round  about  them ;  and  bowed  themselves 
unto  them,  and  served  Baal  and  the  Astartes. 

And  the  anger  of  Jahveh  was  hot  against  Israel,  and  he 
delivered  them  into  the  hands  of  the  spoilers  that  spoiled 
them  ;  and  he  sold  them  into  the  hands  of  their  enemies 
round  about,  so  that  they  could  not  any  longer  stand 
before  their  enemies. 

Whithersoever  they  went  out,  the  hand  of  Jahveh  was 
against  them  for  evil,  as  Jahveh  had  said,  and  as  Jahveh 
had  sworn  unto  them ;  and  they  were  greatly  distressed. 

Nevertheless  Jahveh  raised  up  Judges  which  delivered 
them  out  of  the  hand  of  those  that  spoiled  them 

And  when  the  Judge  was  dead,  they  returned  and 
corrupted  themselves  again,  in  following  other  gods  to 
serve  them,  and  to  bow  down  unto  them 

And  the  anger  of  Jahveh  was  hot  against  Israel ^ 

It  is  always  the  same  story.  The  Israelites  having 
forsaken  Jahveh,  they  are  handed  over  by  him  to  their 
enemies.  As  soon  as  they  repent,  Jahveh  raises  up  a 
Judge  to  deliver  them.  Then  the  Israelites  fall  back 
into  their  sin  ;  they  forget  Jahveh,  and  serve  the  Baals 
and  Astartes.  At  once  the  anger  of  Jahveh  flames  out 
against  them,  and  again  he  delivers  them  to  their  enemies 
until  they  repent,  when  he  raises  up  another  Judge  to 
save  them. 

The  legends  of  the  Judges  are  merely  an  illustration  of 
this  doctrine :  the  forsaking  of  Jahveh  is  punished  by 
defeat,  the  return  to  Jahveh  is  rewarded  with  victory. 

After  the  Judges,  the  writers  of  Jerusalem  undertook 

*  Judges  ii.  6-20. 


THE  JEHOVIST-ELOHIST  PEKIOD  73 

to  narrate  the  history  of  Saul,  the  first  Israehtic  king, 
and  of  David,  the  great  founder  of  the  dynasty.  This 
made  up  what  are  called  the  two  books  of  Samuel.  But 
the  story  of  Saul  and  of  David  has  no  other  object  than 
to  show  how  fidelity  to  Jahveh  is  infallibly  rewarded,  and 
disobedience  is  infallibly  punished.  The  history  of 
Solomon  and  the  kings  who  succeeded  him,  down  to  the 
disappearance  of  the  dynasty  and  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem by  Nabuchodonosor,  was  written  later.  The  present 
state  of  Biblical  criticism  does  not  enable  us  to  determine 
if  the  earliest  Jerusalem  writers  went  beyond  the  reign  of 
David ;  if  they  did,  their  narratives  must  have  been  lost. 

Such,  then,  is  the  literature  of  Jerusalem  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourth  century.  Some  men  of  the  sacerdotal 
caste  which  ruled  the  little  State  of  Jerusalem,  and  already 
had  some  influence  in  neighbouring  countries,  have  under- 
taken to  relate  how  their  laws  were  given  by  Jahveh, 
their  god ;  how  Jahveh,  their  god,  chose  them  as  his 
people ;  and  how  their  fortune  has  depended,  and  will 
always  depend,  on  their  fidelity  to  him.  Each  narrated 
these  episodes  that  were  used  to  illustrate  the  fundamental 
dogmas  according  to  the  traditions  he  had  collected, 
according  to  his  own  imagination,  according  to  the  legends 
that  circulated  about  him  or  the  knowledge  brought  from 
Babylon.  These  early  fragments,  from  which  the  Bible 
would  afterwards  be  formed,  were  a  kind  of  rhapsodies, 
but  rhapsodies  with  a  purpose  ;  fables,  but  in  the  sense  of 
the  Greek  6  fxvdog  StjXoi  on ;  moral  tales,  epics  or  idylls, 
proverbs  in  the  form  of  legends,  a  vast  cycle  of  inde- 
pendent narratives.  And  from  this  mass  of  different 
episodes  there  emerges  at  once  a  sort  of  great  national 
history,  which  this  people,  boldly  absorbing  its  neighbours, 
gives  itself  in  order  to  learn  from  the  example  of  an 
imaginary  past.  The  creation  of  the  world,  the  Deluge, 
Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob  and  his  sons ;  then  the  captivity 
in  Egypt,  Moses  raised  up  by  Jahveh  to  deliver  his  people 
and  lead  them  to  the  gates  of   the  promised  land,  the 


74  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

crossing  of  the  desert,  the  giving  of  the  law ;  after  Moses, 
Joshua  and  the  conquest  of  Palestine ;  then,  when  Israel 
is  settled  in  its  inheritance,  the  constant  punishment  of 
secession,  the  invariable  reward  of  a  return  to  Jahveh, 
the  Judges,  Saul,  David  founding  the  famous  Israelitic 
kingdom  that  they  would  restore — a  complete  past  created 
almost  in  its  entirety  by  a  small  people  that  is  hardly 
born,  with  a  view  to  opening  out  the  future.  Never  was 
there  a  vaster  programme,  or  one  that  was  more  magni- 
ficently realised. 

But  the  years  were  passing,  and  fresh  needs  demanded 
fresh  activities. 


§  3.  The  Deuteronomic  Period. 

The  few  laws  which  the  earlier  moshlim  had  inserted 
among  the  Mosaic  episodes  sufficed,  as  legislation,  for  the 
period  of  the  immediate  successors  of  Esdras.  Written 
laws  never  precede  the  organisation  of  a  people;  they 
do  not  appear  until  the  people  becomes  self-conscious. 
Societies  which  do  not  develop  have  no  legislation. 
Legislation  is  a  sign  that  a  society  has  entered  upon 
adolescence. 

Half-a-century  after  Esdras  the  State  of  Jerusalem  has 
reached  the  period  of  development  which  is  the  adoles- 
cence of  a  people.  It  has  become  stronger  every  day,  in 
proportion  as  it  has  deepened  the  ardent  nationalism 
which  was  symbolised  in  the  name  of  the  lord  Jahveh. 
The  sacerdotal  aristocracy  is  larger ;  the  people  obey 
with  more  comprehensive  soul ;  the  temple  casts  a  more 
formidable  shadow  round  the  city.  The  time  has  come 
for  framing  more  precise  laws.  The  Deuteronomic  period 
will  be  above  all  things  legislative. 

Of  the  two  most  important  of  the  Deuteronomic  laws, 
one  relates  to  the  prohibition  to  worship  Jahveh  elsewhere 
than  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  which  is  thus  raised  to 


THE  DEUTEBONOMIC  PERIOD  75 

the  rank  of  the  sole  temple  of  the  god ;  the  other  relates 
to  the  extermination  of  the  so-called  Canaanitic  cults. 
Both  of  them — the  one  in  looking  to  the  Palestinian 
worshippers  of  Jahveh,  the  other  referring  to  the 
Palestinian  worshippers  of  other  deities — seem  to  have 
aimed  chiefly  at  preparing  the  hegemony  of  Jerusalem 
over  the  whole  of  Palestine. 

The  enacting  that  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  shall  be  the 
sole  temple  of  Jahveh  is  a  fact  turned  into  a  law.  We 
must  explain  how  the  exigencies  of  their  imperialism  led 
the  successors  of  Esdras  to  codify  a  state  of  things  which 
already  existed  in  point  of  fact. 

The  Jewish  State  of  the  fifth  century  comprised  the 
small  town  of  Jerusalem  and  its  outskirts.  It  is  the  same 
situation  as  that  of  the  Athenian  Eepublic,  of  which 
Athens  was  the  only  town ;  or  of  the  Eoman  Eepublic, 
which  consisted  of  Eome  alone.  One  cannot  imagine  two 
Capitols  at  Eome,  or  more  than  one  Acropolis  at  Athens ; 
and  it  is  even  more  inconceivable  that  there  should  be 
several  temples  at  Jerusalem  in  the  east,  with  its  one  god, 
a  god  personifying  the  soul  of  the  country.  Om-  modern 
Catholic  churches,  Protestant  chapels,  and  Jewish  syna- 
gogues are  houses  of  prayer.  They  convey  no  idea  of  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem,  which  was  the  centre  of  the  State. 
We  must  regard  it  as,  not  merely  the  house  in  which 
sacrifice  is  offered,  but  the  throne  on  which  is  placed  the 
sovereignty  of  the  national  god.  The  Bible  will  teach 
that  Jahveh  has  two  homes — one  in  heaven,  the  other  in 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem. 

If  the  State  of  Jerusalem  had  been  larger,  or  had 
comprised  more  than  one  town,  it  is  possible  that  sheer 
necessity  would  have  brought  about  a  decentralisation  of 
the  cult.  In  point  of  fact,  it  consisted  of  one  town  only, 
and  its  outskirts,  including  the  desert  regions,  had  an  area 
of  only  a  few  thousand  acres — not  twice  the  extent  of  the 
Isle  of  Wight.  In  a  few  hours'  march  the  most  distant 
rustics  could  reach  their  capital,  and  all  the  Jews,  without 


76  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

exception,  could  bring  their  offerings  in  their  hands  to  the 
temple  at  each  of  the  ceremonies  on  which  this  was 
enjoined. 

We  said  a  moment  ago  that  the  Jerusalem  temple  had 
not  the  same  character  as  our  Christian  churches  or  our 
synagogues  ;  it  was  also  quite  different  in  arrangement. 
When  we  regard  the  situation  of  the  temple  as  it  is 
to-day,  and  try  to  imagine  what  the  topography  of  these 
places  was  formerly,  we  see  plainly  that  there  could  not 
be  two  such  edifices  in  a  State  of  a  few  thousand  acres. 
The  temple  of  former  days  was,  like  the  Haram  of  to-day, 
an  immense  fortified  esplanade,  with  the  house  of  the  god 
in  the  centre.  The  house  of  the  god  was  not  larger  than 
one  of  our  small  churches ;  the  esplanade  could  easily 
contain  the  whole  Jewish  people  on  the  days  when  they 
were  commanded  to  appear  before  their  god. 

Can  it  be  supposed  that  there  were  rural  sanctuaries  in 
the  surrounding  district  ?  It  is  not  impossible,  if  we  are 
merely  thinking  of  lowly  survivals  of  the  older  Palestinian 
cults.  Instead  of  regarding  them  as  temples,  however,  we 
can  at  the  most  see  in  them  certain  obscure  high-places 
maintained  by  local  superstition.  A  temple  was  at  once 
a  fortress,  a  palace,  and  a  court-house.  What  common 
measure  could  there  be  between  the  seat  of  the  govern- 
ment at  Jerusalem  and  miserable  chapels  lost  on  the 
mountains  ? 

In  the  time  of  Esdras  and  his  successors,  then,  the 
Jerusalem  temple  is  the  sole  temple  of  the  State,  and  it 
is  difficult  to  see  how  any  historian  can  doubt  this.  Why, 
then,  did  the  men  of  Jerusalem  take  the  trouble  to 
formulate  a  solidly  accomplished  fact  in  the  form  of  a 
rigorous  enactment  ? 

When  they  looked  out  beyond  their  walls,  the  men  of 
Jerusalem  perceived  Moab  and  Camos,  the  god  of  Moab, 
in  the  east,  across  the  Dead  Sea ;  in  the  north-east  they 
saw  Ammon,  and  its  god  Milkom ;  but  what  did  they  see 
in  the   south,  in  the  nearer  west,  and  in  the  north,  in 


THE  DEUTEEONOMIC  PEEIOD  77 

Samaria  ?  They  saw  hostile  peoples  worshipping  Jahveh, 
their  own  national  god.  The  national  god  of  the  Jeru- 
salem State  had,  in  fact,  once  been  the  god  of  all  the 
Israelitic  tribes.  In  the  time  of  David  and  Solomon  he 
had  had  altars  from  one  end  of  Palestine  to  the  other. 
Later,  in  the  period  of  the  two  kingdoms,  his  cult  had 
been  celebrated  in  Ephraim,  as  well  as  Judah.  The 
Assyrian  and  Chaldaean  invasions  had  thrown  everything 
into  confusion  ;  but,  as  the  times  became  more  tranquil, 
a  certain  number  of  these  old  sanctuaries  were  restored. 
Some  of  the  ancient  towns  of  Palestine,  notably  Samaria, 
had  then,  in  the  fifth  century,  preserved  or  rebuilt 
temples  in  which  holocausts  sent  up  their  smoke  to 
Jahveh  no  less  than  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem. 

The  disciples  of  Esdras  were  bound  to  regard  these 
cults  as  sacrilegious.  Their  sanctuary  was,  in  their  eyes, 
the  sole  orthodox  sanctuary ;  the  others  were  altars  of 
abomination,  plainly  repudiated  by  the  god.  They  might 
indeed  have  been  content  to  declare  that  Jahveh  was 
rightly  worshipped  in  Jerusalem,  and  not  rightly  in 
Samaria  and  elsewhere ;  but  with  the  magnificent  decision, 
of  which  we  find  so  many  examples  in  Jewish  history, 
and  which  made  the  Jewish  people  one  of  the  great  peoples 
of  the  world,  they  took  advantage  of  what  might  have 
been  an  unfortunate  circumstance. 

They  intended  some  day  to  rally  or  annex  to  the  recon- 
stituted kingdom  of  Israel,  of  which  they  would  be  the 
chiefs,  these  Palestinian  towns  in  which  an  illicit  incense 
was  offered  to  their  god.  But  how  could  they  express  in 
the  language  of  the  fifth  century  the  rallying,  annexing, 
or  subduing  of  Samaria  ?  Solely  by  imposing  the  Jeru- 
salem cult  upon  Samaria.  Turning  toward  Samaria,  and 
toward  the  towns  of  Palestine  in  which  Jahveh  was  wor- 
shipped, the  men  of  Jerusalem  did  not  hesitate  to  proclaim 
that  it  was  only  in  their  town  and  their  temple  that  all 
the  children  of  Israel — that  is  to  say,  all  the  Palestinians 
— should  render  to  the  god  the  cult  that  was  due  to  him. 


78  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

We  do  not  say  that  the  Deuteronomic  law  of  the 
monopohsation  of  the  cult  in  the  single  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem was  promulgated  for  the  use  of  the  neighbouring 
populations,  and  especially  the  State  of  Samaria.  We 
say  that  this  law,  inspired  by  the  imperialism  of  the 
legislators,  had  in  view,  in  their  minds,  the  neighbouring 
populations,  and  especially  Samaria.  It  is  laid  down  in 
view  of  the  time  when  the  whole  of  Palestine  will  be 
under  their  domination.  It  condemns  the  other  sanctu- 
aries in  advance :  it  kills  rivalry  in  the  germ.  Two 
centuries  in  advance  it  formulates  the  principles  on  which 
the  Machabees  will  proceed.  It  is,  in  the  minds  of  the 
successors  of  Esdras,  the  complement  of  their  theory  of 
Israel.  They  gave  their  mountain  in  advance  as  capital  to 
the  people  of  Israel  whom  they  proposed  to  create  some  day. 

Jerusalem  was  to  be  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Jeru- 
salem :  that  was  the  expression  that  Deuteronomy  gave 
to  the  ambition  of  the  successors  of  Esdras.  In  putting 
forward,  at  the  close  of  the  fifth  century,  the  pretension 
to  appropriate  the  cult  of  Jahveh — that  is  to  say,  to  appro- 
priate Jahveh — they  were  putting  forward  the  pretension 
to  make  tributaries  of  their  neighbours ;  they  posed  as 
sovereigns.  To  rule  religiously  meant,  as  we  know,  to 
rule  as  completely  as  it  was  possible-  under  the  suzerainty 
of  Persia,  in  expectation  of  the  time  when  this  yoke  itself 
would  be  cast  off. 

The  ordaining  of  the  Jerusalem  temple  as  the  sole 
temple  of  Jahveh,  the  monopolisation  of  the  cult  of  Jahveh 
in  the  single  temple  of  Jerusalem,  was  at  first  a  fact,  then 
a  law.  The  fact  arose  from  the  natural  circumstances  in 
which  the  little  State  of  Jerusalem  was  placed  by  the  end 
of  the  sixth  century ;  the  law  arose  from  the  deliberate 
ambition  of  the  Jewish  aristocracy.  In  order  to  impose 
its  hegemony  on  its  neighbours,  it  had  created  the  theory 
of  the  ideal  Israel.  Now  it  proclaims,  as  a  supreme  law, 
that  Jerusalem  is  the  centre  from  which  Jahveh  must 
reign  over  the  whole  of  Palestine. 


THE  DEUTEEONOMIC  PEEIOD  79 

Unto  the  place  which  Jahveh,  your  god,  shall  choose 
out  of  all  your  tribes  to  put  his  name  there,  even  unto 
his  habitation  shall  ye  seek.^ 

Is  it  possible  to  determine  the  date  of  this  event  ?  The 
task  seemed  difficult,  until  the  papyri  recently  discovered 
at  Elephantine^  provided  the  means,  apparently.  Let  us 
give  the  facts  which  became  known  to  us  through  the 
discovery. 

At  some  unknown  period,  perhaps  at  the  beginning  of 
the  sixth  century — that  is  to  say,  at  the  period  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Nabuchodonosor — a  Jewish 
colony  had  settled  in  Egypt,  on  the  island  of  Elephantine, 
opposite  Assouan,  not  far  from  the  first  cataract.  They 
built  there  a  temple  to  their  god,  Jahveh.  In  the  year 
523  or  522,  when  Cambyses  crossed  Egypt,  he  sees  and 
respects  this  sanctuary,  the  papyri  state.  It  is  the  time 
when  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem  are  restoring  their  town. 

A  century  passes.  The  Jews  of  Elephantine,  never- 
theless, have  a  social  and  economic  life.  They  obey  laws. 
They  would  observe  the  Mosaic  laws,  the  Jehovist  and 
Elohist  and  Deuteronomical  laws,  if  they  knew  them. 
But,  in  point  of  fact,  they  obey  laws  which  at  times 
cruelly  violate  the  Jehovist,  Elohist,  and  Deuteronomic 
codes.  They  are  nevertheless  in  constant  communication 
with  the  metropolis,  and,  in  the  year  419-418,  they 
receive  from  it  a  regulation  for  the  celebration  of  the 
Passover.  Hence  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  do  not  regard 
the  priests  of  Elephantine  as  schismatics.  Elephantine 
is  more  than  seven  hundred  miles  from  Jerusalem.  The 
monopolisation  of  the  cult  in  the  Jerusalem  temple  is  a 
fact  in  the  State  of  Jerusalem ;  but  the  fact  has  not  yet 
been  erected  into  a  law,  and  it  only  holds  of  the  State  of 
Jerusalem.  The  fundamental  law  of  Deuteronomy  is  not 
yet  codified  in  the  year  419-418. 

Suddenly,  during  the  month  of  Tammuz,  in  the  four- 
teenth year  of  Darius   (that  is  to  say,  in  the  month  of 

^  Deuteronomy  xii.  5.  '^  See  p.  xv,  note  3. 


80  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

July,  409),  the  Egyptian  priests  of  Elephantine  come  to 
terms  with  the  local  authorities. 

"  The  sanctuary  of  the  god  Jahveh  must  be  removed 
from  the  city  of  Elephantine,"  they  say. 

And  the  temple  of  Elephantine  is  rased  to  the  ground. 

What  do  the  priests  of  the  ruined  temple  do  ?  They 
petition  the  Persian  governor ;  and  at  the  same  time  they 
appeal  to  the  high-priest  at  Jerusalem  for  his  intercession. 

The  priests  of  Elephantine  do  not  regard  themselves  as 
schismatics  in  409.  It  is  a  fresh  proof  that  the  Deutero- 
nomic  law  was  not  known  to  the  Jews  of  Elephantine  in 
409. 

We  have  just  seen  that  in  419-418  the  government 
which  ruled  at  Jerusalem  had  sent  them  a  regulation  for 
the  celebration  of  the  Passover. 

What  reply  does  the  high-priest  of  Jerusalem  make 
in  409  ?  He  does  not  reply  at  all.  Is  his  silence  due  to 
negligence  or  hostility  ?     We  shall  see. 

Three  years  pass,  and,  in  the  month  of  Marchshvan,  the 
year  17  of  King  Darius  (that  is  to  say,  in  November,  406), 
the  Jews  of  Elephantine  make  a  fresh  appeal  to  the 
Persian  governor.  To  whom  do  they  turn  for  help  this 
time  ?  To  the  sons  of  the  pacha  of  Samaria,  the  rivals 
and  opponents  of  Jerusalem. 

The  silence  of  the  high-priest  of  Jerusalem,  therefore, 
was  a  mark  of  hostility.  The  Jewish  priests  of  Elephan- 
tine must  have  seen  that  they  had  nothing  to  hope  for 
from  him.     They  turn  to  the  enemy. 

The  Jerusalem  aristocracy  admitted  in  419-418,  but 
admits  no  longer  in  409,  the  practice  of  the  cult  outside 
the  temple  of  Jerusalem.  The  Deuteronomic  law, 
which  did  not  exist  in  419-418,  and  was  not  yet  known 
at  Elephantine  in  409,  is  now  promulgated.  It  is 
taught  to  the  Jews  of  Elephantine  by  the  hostihty 
of  the  high-priest  at  Jerusalem.  They  become  schis- 
matics, and  can  only  turn  to  Samaria.  The  year  409  is 
the  approximate  date  when  the  monopoly  of  the  cult  in 


THE  DEUTEEONOMIC  PERIOD  81 

the  single  temple  of  Jerusalem  changes  from  law  by 
custom  into  written  law. 

But,  besides  the  regions  in  which  Jahveh  was  wor- 
shipped, there  were  parts  of  Palestine  in  which  other 
gods  were  worshipped.  Such  were  the  coveted  plains  of 
Philistia,  and  the  sister-countries  of  Ammon,  Moab,  and 
Edom.  There  were  also  regions  in  which  the  cult  of 
Jahveh  was  accompanied  with  that  of  other  deities ;  as 
in  certain  parts  of  the  State  of  Samaria.  The  priests  of 
Jerusalem,  moreover,  failed  to  distinguish  properly 
between  the  cult  offered  to  images  of  Jahveh  and  the 
worship  of  strange  gods.  We  have,  for  instance,  seen 
them  confusing  the  altars  of  Jahveh-Melek  with  the 
altars  of  the  Ammonite  Moloch.  Finally,  on  every  side, 
perhaps  even  in  Judaea,  local  superstition  raised  numbers 
of  small  sanctuaries  to  the  most  sanguinary  demons ;  and 
although  these  sanctuaries  no  longer  threatened  the 
great  ofhcial  temples,  they  propagated  idolatry.  Of  all 
these  cults,  which  Deuteronomy,  as  we  shall  see,  collec- 
tively denominates  Canaanitic,  some  were  Canaanitic  in 
the  scientific  sense  of  the  word — that  is  to  say,  anterior  to 
the  arrival  of  the  Israelitic  tribes  in  Palestine ;  others 
might  be  the  cults  of  sister-tribes  such  as  Ammon,  Edom, 
and  Moab ;  while  others  may  have  been  introduced  later 
into  the  country.  Whatever  their  origin  and  development 
were,  it  is  against  these  different  forms  of  Palestinian 
paganism  that  the  Deuteronomic  legislators  found  them- 
selves compelled  to  act ;  just  as  they  had  been  constrained 
to  act  against  the  Jahvic  temples  which  rivalled  that  of 
Jerusalem. 

In  the  Jehovist  period  the  chief  object  of  the  successors 
of  Esdras  had  been  the  resolute  maintenance  of  Jewish 
nationalism  about  the  name  of  Jahveh,  the  national  god. 
Jerusalem  was  then  the  most  meagre  of  the  Palestinian 
States ;  it  seemed  to  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  necessary 
to  create  a  focus  of  unquenchable  patriotism  in  the  temple 
of  Jahveh.     Half  a  century  afterwards,  the  little  State 

G 


82  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

having  prospered,  and  beginning  to  extend  its  activity 
into  surrounding  regions,  there  was  a  danger  of  the  people 
of  Jerusalem  allowing  strange  deities  to  penetrate  into 
their  town  and  their  hearts.  Further,  a  new  danger  was 
arising.  Would  not  the  people  of  Jerusalem  take  their 
gods  from  these  foreigners  whom  they  were  beginning  to 
subdue  ?  Would  not  the  conquered  impose  their  gods  on 
the  conquerors  ? 

It  was  not  enough  to  preserve  the  people  of  Jerusalem 
from  the  contagion  of  foreign  idolatry ;  this  idolatry  must 
be  exterminated  in  such  of  the  neighbouring  communities 
as  came  under  their  influence  and  began  to  feel  their 
domination.  It  is,  indeed,  an  invariable  fact  that,  in  the 
history  of  religions,  the  people  who  have  suffered  a 
religious  defeat  tend,  in  spite  of  their  conversion,  to 
persevere  in  their  former  practices.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise  among  the  peoples  who  were  gradually  falling 
under  the  hegemony  of  Jerusalem.  These  Judaisers  were 
not  all  good  Judaisers ;  a  large  number,  especially  in  the 
country,  were  clearly  very  bad.  The  old  idolatrous  and 
fetichistic  practices,  the  worship  of  Jahveh  in  an  animal 
or  inorganic  form  along  with  their  insignificant  and 
domestic  gods,  sacrifices,  and  necromantic  propitiations, 
would  not  fail  to  persist.  They  must  be  eradicated  at 
any  cost. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  State  of  Jerusalem,  which  is  a 
people,  now  assumes  the  features  of  a  sect.  The  work  of 
Esdras,  creating  an  ardent  nationalism,  but  giving  it  the 
form  of  a  religion,  has  developed  an  extraordinary 
fanaticism  in  the  souls  of  the  Jews.  When  Rome  con- 
quered Italy,  it  imposed  its  laws  strenuously ;  Jerusalem 
imposed  a  faith,  a  cult,  a  ritual,  on  those  about  it.  The 
despotism  would  be  terrible  some  day.  Judaism,  through 
its  priests  at  first,  through  its  Pharisees  afterwards, 
always  exacted  of  the  Judaisers,  not  merely  material 
obedience,  but  the  entire  surrender  of  the  moral  per- 
sonality.    It  has  been  said  that  the  Inquisition  is  found 


THE  DEUTEEONOMIC  PERIOD  83 

in  Deuteronomy.  The  clerical  aristocracy  of  Jerusalem 
inaugurated  the  Inquisition  in  the  fourth  century  before 
the  present  era/ 

In  fine,  not  content  with  preserving  the  Jewish  soul 
from  foreign  idolatry,  or  with  attacking  this  idolatry  in 
the  heart  of  the  Judaising  peoples,  the  Jerusalem  legis- 
lators felt  that  the  great  programme  of  the  reconstitution 
of  the  kingdom  of  Israel  implied,  if  the  neighbouring 
populations  were  to  be  conquered  some  day,  the  con- 
demnation of  whatever  deities  they  had  besides  Jahveh 
and  the  monopoly  of  the  Jahvic  cult  at  Jerusalem.  Like 
the  monopoly  of  the  Jahvic  cult  at  Jerusalem,  the  con- 
demnation of  pagan  cults  in  Palestine  was  a  logical  and 
necessary  consequence  of  the  ambition  of  Jerusalem. 
The  leaders  who  ruled  at  Jerusalem  took  the  offensive. 
They  turned  again  to  the  neighbouring  populations,  whom 
they  dreamed  of  conquering  some  day,  and,  in  order  to 
impose  on  them  the  worship  of  the  Jahveh  who  reigned 
at  Jerusalem,  they  cast  anathema  on  their  gods.  The 
centres  of  anti-Jahvic  idolatry  which  continued  to  increase 
in  Palestine  threatened — at  first  in  Jerusalem  itself,  then 
among  the  Judaisers,  lastly  among  their  idolatrous  neigh- 
bours— the  authority  which  the  Jerusalem  clergy  dreamed 
of  securing  in  the  name  of  the  people  of  Israel.  It  was 
the  exigencies  of  their  imperialist  policy  that  once  more 
guided  the  Deuteronomic  legislators  when,  on  the  one 
hand,  they  promulgated  their  fearful  enactments  against 
idolatry,  and  when,  on  the  other,  they  launched  their 
anathema  against  the  Canaanites. 

We  know  that  the  Canaanites,  Hethites,  Amorrhites, 
Pheresites,  Hevites,  Jebusites,  and  Gergezites  are  names 
that  the  Jehovist  writers  used  in  order  to  explain  how 
Jahveh  had  benevolently  bestowed  their  land  on  Israel. 
In  the  Deuteronomic  writers  all  these  peoples  are  con- 
founded under  the  generic  name  of  Canaanites.     But  the 

*  See  ante,  p.  33. 


84  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

Canaanites  are  no  longer  merely  victims  despoiled  by 
Jahveh  in  favour  of  Israel.  They  become  the  symbol  of 
idolatry,  of  paganism ;  they  are,  by  the  very  definition, 
the  enemies  of  Jahveh.  In  accordance  with  the  invariable 
usage  of  Jewish  literature,  the  nioshlim  of  the  fourth 
century  project  on  them,  in  the  past,  a  contemporary 
reality.  The  Canaanites  of  the  Deuteronomic  Bible  are 
the  mythical  image  of  those  neighbours  of  Jerusalem  who, 
in  the  midst  of  and  by  the  side  of  the  hegemony  of 
Jerusalem,  maintained  in  the  fourth  century  the  religious 
practices  condemned  by  the  law  of  Jerusalem.  Even 
more  than  during  the  Jehovist  period,  Canaan  is  the 
counterpart  of  Israel. 

Thus  the  mashal  of  the  Deuteronomic  period  are  terrible 
for  the  Canaanites.  The  Deuteronomic  episodes  of  the  con- 
quest, in  the  book  of  Joshua,  are  pages  of  blood.  There 
is  nothing  but  frightful  massacres.  Women  are  no  more 
spared  than  men  ;  children  no  more  than  the  aged.  The 
flocks  are  exterminated,  the  soil  is  accursed.  These  pages 
seem  to  be  written  in  the  fearful  delirium  of  visionaries 
sated  with  carnage.  The  command  of  Jahveh  is  explicit 
— none  must  be  spared.  And  when  Joshua  is  laid  in  his 
tomb  after  the  conquest,  not  a  single  Canaanite  remains 
alive,  say  the  ancient  narratives.  The  priests  who  ruled 
at  Jerusalem  in  the  fourth  century  were  giving  to  the 
world  the  dilemma  that  pervades  the  whole  of  Jewish 
literature,  including  the  prophets  and  the  apocalypses — 
submit  or  be  exterminated. 

The  ancient  Jehovist  narratives  of  a  period  presumably 
later  than  Joshua  and  the  ancient  episodes  of  the  Judges 
knew  nothing  of  this  extermination  of  the  Canaanites  ; 
they  had  frankly  related  the  sequel  of  the  conflicts 
between  the  Israelites  and  the  Canaanites.  With  that 
indifference  to  contradictions  that  shocks  us  so  much, 
though  it  is  general  among  the  Orientals,  and  particularly 
found  in  the  Jews,  the  Deuteronomic  writers  did  not 
trouble  to  recast  the  legends  of  the  Judges  and  Samuel. 


THE  DEUTEEONOMIC  PEEIOD  85 

The  inconsistency  that  they  allowed  to  pass  is  seen  con- 
tinually in  the  Bible  as  we  have  it. 

We  do  not  propose  to  give  here  a  summary  of  the 
Deuteronomic  legislation.  Its  numerous  enactments,  apart 
from  a  few  precepts  of  common  law,  public  hygiene,  and 
ritualism,  which  are  required  in  a  developed  civilisation, 
only  develop  the  principles  on  which  Judaism  is  formed. 
Jahveh  is  the  sole  god ;  Jahveh  must  have  no  images ; 
there  must  be  an  ardent  solidarity,  a  mutual  love,  among 
the  Jews,  and  their  arms  must  be  open  to  the  foreigner 
when  he  comes  to  prostrate  himself  at  the  feet  of  Jahveh 
and  of  the  Jewish  fatherland,  but  anathema  to  the 
foreigner  who  will  not  Judaise.  Let  us  add  a  first 
systematic  organisation  of  the  clergy  :  the  question  of 
sacrifices,  offerings,  and  tithes — that  is  to  say,  the  fiscal 
law  of  Jerusalem,  discussed  in  minute  detail  ;  finally, 
recalled  with  the  most  precise  rites,  the  three  great 
annual  feasts  of  the  Passover,  Weeks,  and  Tabernacles — 
that  is  to  say,  of  the  spring,  the  harvest,  and  the  vintage, 
since,  in  this  east  in  which  the  priests  command  in  the 
name  of  the  local  god,  the  popular  gatherings  take  the 
form  of  religious  festivals. 

But  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  priests  of  Jeru- 
salem could,  like  the  Roman  jurisconsults,  promulgate 
laws  in  the  abstract.  Calling  themselves  the  heirs  of 
Moses,  they  simply  taught  the  people  the  very  ancient 
law  dictated  to  him  by  the  national  god,  a  thousand  years 
before,  in  the  deserts  of  Horeb  or  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jordan.  No  legislation  could  succeed  at  Jerusalem  that 
did  not  bear  the  name  and  authority  of  the  unique  legis- 
lator Moses.  Instead  of  saying  to  the  people,  "  Thou  shalt 
rest  on  the  seventh  day  of  the  week,"  they  could  not  fail  to 
say :  "In  such  and  such  circumstances,  on  such  a  day,  at 
such  a  place,  Jahveh  spoke  unto  Moses,  and  said  to  him  : 
Thou  shalt  rest " 

Hence  the  Deuteronomic  period  marks  the  composition 
of   a    new   series   of   episodes    (of     a    more    particularly 


86  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

legislative  character),  which  were  added  to  the  episodes 
already  composed.  There  was  no  break  and  no  external 
distinction  between  what  we  have  called  the  Jehovist- 
Elohist  period  and  the  Deuteronomic  period.  Fresh 
narratives  are  added  to  the  early  narratives  of  the 
creation,  the  patriarchal  legends,  and  the  Mosaic  epic. 
The  new  generations  contribute  their  portion.  But  the 
general  spirit  has  changed  somewhat ;  we  have  reached 
the  time  when  the  rather  vague  teaching  of  the  Jehovist 
and  the  Elohist  no  longer  suffices,  and  a  more  explicit 
legislation  is  brought  on  the  scene.  The  new  priestly 
writers  do  not  profess  to  recommence  the  work  of  their 
predecessors ;  they  continue  and  complete  it. 

It  is  now  related  that  at  Horeb,  just  after  the  escape 
from  Egypt,  when  they  were  beginning  to  cross  the 
desert,  Jahveh  had  spoken  to  Moses.  After  forty  years 
they  reach  the  banks  of  the  Jordan,  in  the  plains  of 
Moab,  and  there : 

Moses  called  all  Israel,  and  said  unto  them,  Hear,  0 
Israel,  the  statutes  and  judgments  which  I  speak  in  your 
ears  this  day 

Jahveh,  our  god,  made  a  covenant  with  you  in 
Horeb 

He  talked  with  you  face  to  face  in  the  mount,  out  of 
the  midst  of  the  fire. 

I  stood  between  Jahveh  and  you  at  that  time,  to  show 
you  the  word  of  Jahveh  ;  for  ye  were  afraid  by  reason  of 
the  fire,  and  went  not  up  into  the  mountain. 

And  Jahveh  said  to  you ' 

The  celebrated  decalogue  follows. 

Other  scenes  are  composed  to  enframe  other  legislation. 
Each  new  promulgation  is  presented  as  an  account  of  a 
conversation  between  Jahveh  and  Moses,  from  which 
Moses  brings  fresh  commands.  In  fine,  we  have  the 
famous  episode  of  the  benedictions  and  maledictions,  a 
magnificent  development  of  the  old  theme  : — 

If  thou  shalt  hearken  diligently  unto  the  voice  of  Jahveh 
*  Deuteronomy  v.  1-5. 


THE  DEUTEEONOMIC  PEEIOD  87 

thy  god,  Jahveh  thy  god  will  set  thee  on  high  above  all 

nations  of  the  earth 

But  if  thou  wilt  not  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  Jahveh 
thy  god,  all  these  curses  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  over- 
take thee 

All  the  blessings  are  enumerated,  and  they  betray  the 
ideal  of  the  Jerusalem  aristocracy  of  the  fourth  century. 
All  the  curses  also  are  enumerated,  with  a  concentration 
of  lyric  atrocity  that  amazes  us/ 

The  Deuteronomic  writers  added  a  large  number  of  new 
narratives  to  the  older  ones  relating  to  the  conquest  of 
Palestine  by  the  Israelites  under  the  command  of  Joshua. 
These  narratives  form  part  of  our  actual  book  of  Joshua. 
The  same  need  that  had  compelled  the  writers  to  enlarge 
the  Mosaic  epic  with  so  many  episodes  also  forced  them 
to  develop  the  epic  of  the  conquest.  Once  more  a  fresh 
situation  created  fresh  needs. 

We  have  already  said  that  the  writers  who  related  the 
episodes  of  ancient  Israelitic  history  probably  reached  as 
far  as  the  end  of  the  reign  of  David,  when  the  Deutero- 
nomic spirit  gradually  replaced  the  Jehovist  spirit.  The 
story  of  Solomon,  son  of  David,  who,  all-powerful  master 
of  his  neighbours,  allowed  their  women  to  seduce  him  into 
accepting  their  abominable  deities,  and  of  his  successors, 
the  kings  of  Judah  and  Ephraim,  with  the  constant 
punishment  by  Jahveh  of  their  lapses  into  idolatry  and 
the  constant  reward  of  their  return,  was  written  in  a 
Deuteronomic  spirit.  The  great  principle,  laid  down  by 
the  Jehovist  writers,  that  unfaithfulness  is  always  punished 
and  faithfulness  always  rewarded,  has  not  ceased  to  rule ; 
but  the  infidelities  that  are  punished  are  now  acts  of 
disobedience  to  the  Deuteronomic  codes. 

The  famous  reform  of  Josias  is  the  last  creation  of  the 
Deuteronomic  dogmatism.  No  story  was  ever  more 
improbable,  yet  no  story  was  ever  taken  more  seriously 

*  Deuteronomy  xxviii. 


88  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

by  the  commentators ;  it  was  a  colossal  mistake,  mis- 
leading Biblical  criticism  for  half  a  century.  Possibly  it 
is  an  historical  fact  that  King  Josias,  rebelling  against 
the  king  of  Assyria,  undertook  to  expel  the  Assyrian 
deities  which  his  servile  predecessor  Manasseh  had  intro- 
duced into  Jerusalem.  As  it  is  related  in  the  Bible,  the 
alleged  reform  by  Josias  is  an  extreme  episode  invented 
with  a  view  to  show  that  Jahveh  had  given  a  last  counsel 
to  his  people  on  the  very  eve  of  the  Deportation.  The 
end  of  the  Davidic  dynasty,  the  ruin  of  the  nation,  and 
the  burning  of  the  town,  are,  as  usual,  and  more  than 
ever,  a  great  chastisement  inflicted  by  an  angry  god  on 
the  people  who  have  forsaken  him  for  the  Baals  and 
Astartes. 

Because  the  king  of  Judah  hath  done  these  abomina- 
tions, because  he  hath  worshipped  idols,  and  hath  made 
Judah  also  to  sin  with  his  idols, 

Therefore  thus  saith  Jahveh,  the  god  of  Israel,  Behold, 
I  am  bringing  such  evil  upon  Jerusalem  and  Judah  that, 
whosoever  heareth  of  it,  both  his  ears  shall  tingle. 

And  I  will  stretch  the  plummet  over  Jerusalem  ;  and  I 
will  wipe  Jerusalem  as  a  man  wipeth  a  dish,  wiping  it, 
and  turning  it  upside  down. 

And  I  will  forsake  the  remnant  of  mine  inheritance, 
and  deliver  them  into  the  hand  of  their  enemies ;  and 
they  shall  become  a  prey  and  a  spoil  to  all  their  enemies ; 

Because  they  have  done  that  which  was  evil  in  my 
sight,  and  have  provoked  me  to  anger.^ 

That  point  had  been  reached  in  the  composition  of  the 
Biblical  narratives  by  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century, 
in  the  period  of  the  last  Persian  emperors.  Since  the 
Medic  wars  there  is  a  continuous  war  between  Persian 
Asia  and  Hellenic  Europe.  Greek  colonies  develop  in 
Asia  Minor,  and  the  Greek  civilisation  gradually  penetrates 
the  east.  The  empire  of  Artaxerxes  spreads,  as  a  con- 
federation of  provinces  and  States,  as  far  as  India,  across 
the  whole  of  western  Asia.     Soon  will  open  the  great 

1  2  Kings  xxi.  11-15. 


THE  DEUTEEONOMIC  PEEIOD  89 

epic  of  Alexander,  conquering  this  vast  universe  for 
Hellenism  after  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  struggle. 

At  this  time  Jerusalem  may  have  had  ten  or  fifteen 
thousand  inhabitants,  counting  its  whole  population. 
The  surrounding  districts  would  hardly  double  the 
number.  We  may  conceive  the  Jewish  State  as  a  small 
republic  of  thirty  thousand  souls,  as  little  known  to  the 
rest  of  the  world,  as  lost  in  the  universe,  as  the  lowliest 
of  the  principalities  by  the  Jordan.  It  is  elsewhere — at 
Susa  and  Babylon,  round  the  person  of  the  king  of  kings, 
in  the  heart  of  the  great  Persian  feudalism ;  at  Athens, 
Sparta,  Thebes,  and  presently  in  Macedonia ;  in  Asia 
Minor,  where  Hellenism  and  the  East  are  face  to  face ;  in 
the  islands  of  the  MgeeSbU  Sea — that  the  destinies  of  the 
universe  seem  to  be  arranged. 

Yet  the  history  of  the  world  is  being  prepared  just  as 
much  in  this  obscure  corner.  The  future  presents  itself 
in  the  form  of  a  few  priests  who  are  giving  precepts  and 
dogmas  to  their  little  town. 

The  genius  of  Greece  has  left  to  posterity,  in  immortal 
images,  the  memory  of  its  ideas,  its  art,  and  its  civilisa- 
tion. In  the  narratives  of  its  historians  and  the  verses 
of  its  poets  we  read,  just  as  clearly  as  in  the  columns  of 
the  Parthenon,  the  annals  of  the  luminous  ages  which 
represented  the  adolescence  of  the  human  mind.  But 
the  annals  of  Judaism,  which  will  later  form  a  counter- 
poise to  the  genius  of  Greece,  are  being  written  in  a 
country  that  was  unknown  to  Socrates  and  Pericles.  If 
we  would  discover  the  origin  of  our  Christianity,  we  must 
study  the  humble  composition  of  a  series  of  fabulous  and 
dogmatic  narratives,  written  in  the  shadow  of  a  poor 
temple  in  western  Syria,  by  a  few  generations  of  fanatical 
priests,  for  the  instruction  of  the  small  people  that  the 
disdainful  Persian  allowed  them  to  govern. 


90  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

§  4.  The  Levitical  Period. 

We  have  already  said'  that  the  discovery  of  the  papyri 
of  Elephantine  strikingly  confirmed  the  dating  which  we 
have  adopted  for  the  books  of  the  Bible.  The  witness  of 
the  contemporary  Greek  writers  has  the  same  effect. 

In  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  so  inquisitive  and 
informed  a  writer  as  Herodotus  is  ignorant  of  the  very 
name  of  the  Jews,  much  less  the  Israelites.  If  the 
Mosaic  legislation  were  then  in  existence,  and  if  the 
temple  had  been  organised  with  its  fully  developed 
services,  it  would  be  unintelligible  that  Herodotus  should 
know  nothing  of  a  work  that  would  have  so  richly 
rewarded  his  curiosity.  We  are,  on  the  contrary,  in  the 
age  of  Esdras  (458,  the  arrival  of  Esdras  at  Jerusalem). 
Jerusalem  is  hardly  born  yet. 

Aristotle,  in  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  speaks 
of  a  geographical  feature  of  Palestine  ;  he  knows  nothing 
of  Jews  or  Israelites.  The  Jews  are  still,  in  spite  of  a 
real  development,  only  one  of  the  many  small  peoples  of 
Palestine. 

The  word  "  Jew  "  enters  Greek  literature  after  the  time 
of  Alexander,  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  and  the  beginning 
of  the  third  century.  The  first  interesting  mention  of  it 
is  by  Hecataeus  of  Abdera,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century.  He  is  acquainted  with  various  Mosaic  narra- 
tives and  Deuteronomic  laws,  and  a  Levitical  law,  but 
with  sufficient  errors  and  confusion  to  indicate  that  he 
has  merely  heard  them  spoken  of  in  Egypt,  where  he 
lived,  and  some  of  the  Jews  had  settled. 

The  Levitical  or  sacerdotal  period,  which  succeeded 
the  Deuteronomic  period,  and  was  the  period  in  which 
the  so-called  Levitical  or  sacerdotal  episodes  of  the  Mosaic 
books  were  written  at  Jerusalem,  seems  to  have  com- 
menced about  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  and  to 

'  See  p.  XV. 


THE  LEVITICAL  PEEIOD  91 

have  developed  during  the  Alexandrine  conquest  and  the 
wars  of  the  successors  of  Alexander ;  it  thus  seems  to 
have  coincided  with  the  beginning  of  prophetism,  and  to 
have  continued  until  the  first  part  of  the  third  century, 
at  the  time  when  peace  was  restored  in  Palestine,  under 
the  vice-royalty  of  the  high-priest  Simeon  I. 

It  is  the  period  when  the  State  of  Jerusalem  definitively 
secures  the  hegemony  over  one  half  of  Palestine ;  the 
period  when  the  aristocracy  of  the  Jerusalem  priests  is 
at  its  zenith. 

In  Palestine  the  State  of  Samaria  alone  resists  the 
State  of  Jerusalem ;  Judaea  is  about  to  form  a  great 
province,  of  which  Jerusalem  will  be  the  capital ;  the 
little  neighbouring  States  are  subdued ;  the  ardent 
nationalism  of  the  successors  of  Esdras  has  borne  fruit ; 
Jerusalem  reigns  over  the  surrounding  country. 

In  regard  to  its  internal  affairs,  the  clerical  aristocracy 
is  fully  organised ;  the  caste  enjoys  all  its  privileges ;  the 
office  of  high-priest  passes  from  father  to  son,  and,  first 
under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Persian  emperors,  then  under 
the  suzerainty  of  the  Macedonian  kings  of  Syria  and 
Egypt,  the  high-priests  govern  the  State  ;  below  them 
are  a  few  families  occupying  the  highest  positions  and 
holding  the  wealth  of  the  country,  who  will  afterwards  be 
known  as  the  princes  of  the  priests.  A  body  of  sacrificial 
priests  continues  the  hierarchy ;  the  army  of  levites  obeys 
them ;  while  the  Jewish  people  is  disposed  about  them, 
obedient  and  fanatical,  in  the  fidelity  of  its  heart  to  Jahveh. 

At  the  same  time  the  rites  have  become  innumerable ; 
many  of  them  come  from  Egypt.  The  priests  have 
gradually  created  a  vast  formulary  in  which  their  power 
is  revealed  and  exercised.  Jerusalem  is  something  like 
a  fraternity  in  which  a  mitred  abbot  rules,  with  his 
college  of  vicars,  amid  an  endless  procession  of  ceremonies. 
But  let  us  note  carefully ;  it  is  from  this  minute  actual 
organisation  that  the  financial  power  of  the  Jerusalem 
aristocracy  has  arisen. 


92  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

The  Deuteronomic  period  had  known  nothing  of  these 
complicated  institutions,  this  powerful  hierarchy.  New 
laws  had  to  be  issued  gradually,  to  fix  the  new  ritual 
prescriptions ;  and  new  myths,  to  legitimise  the  new 
institutions.  The  organisation  of  the  Jewish  State  is 
ever  one  of  divine  right,  the  right  of  Jahveh.  The  old 
theory  of  Deuteronomy  is  applied  to  the  new  situation. 
It  is  proved  that  Jahveh  himself,  in  the  remotest  period 
of  history,  said  that  things  must  be  so.  The  authors  of 
the  legislation  of  the  fourth  century  had  thought  it 
necessary  to  attribute  the  promulgation  of  it  to  Moses ; 
the  priests  who  codified  the  new  laws  of  the  Jewish 
State  in  the  third  century  thought  it  no  less  indispensable 
to  make  Moses  their  godfather.  It  was  imperative  that 
the  whole  of  the  law  should  have  been  promulgated  by 
Moses,  dictated  to  Moses  by  Jahveh ;  it  was  imperative 
that  the  priesthood  should  be  traced  to  a  brother  of 
Moses,  and  that  the  temple  should  have  existed  in  its 
first  form  under  Moses  in  the  desert. 

The  work  that  had  been  done  in  the  Jehovist  and 
Deuteronomic  periods  was  resumed  in  a  new  spirit,  in 
view  of  the  necessary  apology  for  the  priesthood,  but 
equally  in  view  of  the  development  of  the  imperialist 
policy.  And  it  is  possible  to-day  for  commentators  to 
distinguish  this  new  edition  of  the  Mosaic  books,  which 
the  later  compilers  generally  placed  at  the  end  of  the 
older  one,  in  the  books  which  compose  our  actual  Bible. 

The  Deuteronomic  writers  had  not  resumed  the 
legendary  history  of  origins ;  they  had  been  content  with 
the  Jehovistic  narratives.  The  sacerdotal  writers  acted 
differently ;  they  took  up  again  the  whole  legendary 
history  of  origins,  from  the  patriarchs  and  the  creation 
onward.  There  was  a  sacerdotal  account  of  the  creation, 
just  as  there  had  been  a  Jehovistic  account.  The  older 
account  is  the  one  which  begins  at  the  fourth  verse  of 
the  second  chapter  of  Genesis  in  our  actual  Bible  :  "  These 
are  the  generations  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth,  in 


THE  LEVITICAL  PERIOD  93 

the  day  that  the  god  Jahveh  made  the  earth  and  the 
heavens."  It  describes  how  Jahveh  made  woman  from 
one  of  the  ribs  of  the  first  man,  and  ends  at  the  twenty- 
fourth  verse  of  the  same  chapter.  The  sacerdotal  account 
is  the  famous  beginning  of  Genesis  with  the  creation  in 
six  days :  "In  the  beginning  god  created  the  heaven  and 

the  earth and  god  said,  Let  there  be  hght."     Here 

god  creates  man  to  his  own  image ;  and  he  creates  him 
both  male  and  female. 

The  patriarchal  legends  are  resumed  with  an  exaggera- 
tion of  the  ritualist  or  hierarchical  tendencies ;  in  other 
places  genealogies  abound,  and  take  the  place  of  the  older 
narratives ;  throughout,  a  new  political  situation  gives 
birth  to  new  ethnographic  myths. 

The  Deuteronomic  writers,  who  had  made  no  addition 
to  the  Jehovistic  episodes  of  the  patriarchal  legend,  had 
added  much  to  the  Jehovistic  episodes  of  the  exodus. 
Nevertheless,  this  enlarged  history  of  Moses  and  Joshua 
seemed  to  the  writers  of  the  Levitic  period  to  be  inade- 
quate.    They  took  it  up  afresh. 

I  will  quote  only  one  instance,  which  has  been  very 
profoundly  studied  by  M.  Maurice  Vernes  in  his  lectures 
at  the  Ecole  des  Hautes-Etudes. 

The  earlier  writers  had  imagined  that  the  Israelites 
had,  after  leaving  Egypt  and  taking  possession  of  Pales- 
tine, entered  upon  a  solemn  covenant  with  Jahveh  and 
sworn  eternal  fidelity.  But  where  had  the  contract  been 
concluded  ?  The  older  narratives  betray  the  hesitations, 
alterations,  and  instability  of  their  compilers  in  dealing 
with  the  ancient  traditions.  It  is  at  Cades,  or  Massa  and 
Meriba,  in  certain  obscure  oases,  during  the  crossing  of 
the  desert,  that  Jahveh  has  his  obscure  conversation  with 
Moses.  Then  one  writer  more  luckily  introduces  the 
mountain  of  Horeb ;  Moses  descends  from  the  company 
of  the  god  with  the  Decalogue  written  on  tables  of  stone, 
and,  on  the  eve  of  entering  the  promised  land,  he 
expounds  to  the  people,  amid  the  plains  of  Moab,  the 


94  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

whole  cycle  of  commandments  which  Jahveh  has 
revealed  to  him,  and  of  which  the  Decalogue  was  the 
preface.  A  different  tradition  is  developed,  however,  in 
another  school.  We  know  that  one  of  the  most  ancient 
sanctuaries  of  Jahveh,  the  memory  of  which  still  survives, 
is  that  of  Sichem,  the  old  temple  of  Baal-Berit,  of  the 
Lord-of- the- Alliance,  or  Jahveh -Lord -of -the -Alliance, 
celebrated  in  the  time  of  Gideon  and  his  son  Abimelech. 
There,  it  is  said,  the  alliance  was  promulgated,  amid  a 
great  gathering  of  the  people,  with  the  benedictions  of 
Mount  Garizim  on  the  one  side  and  the  maledictions  of 
Mount  Ebal  on  the  other.  The  Deuteronomic  episodes 
close  with  these  contradictions. 

The  writers  of  the  sacerdotal  period  desired  more 
majesty  in  the  conclusion  of  the  covenant ;  and,  at  the 
same  time,  their  imperialism  required  that  the  Jerusalem 
temple  should  have  the  glory  of  it.  There  was  among 
them  a  writer  of  genius  and  an  able  casuist — a  common 
conjunction  among  the  Biblical  writers — who  conceived 
the  epic  of  Sinai. 

In  the  middle  of  the  Arabian  desert,  during  the  terrible 
forty  years'  wandering,  the  people,  led  by  Moses,  halted 
at  the  foot  of  Sinai.  There,  amid  the  chaos  of  rocks  on 
which  no  vegetation  finds  root,  in  the  horror  of  the  naked 
gorges  and  the  snowy  peaks,  across  the  storms  which  roll 
from  summit  to  summit  and  precipice  to  precipice,  Jahveh 
manifests  himself  to  his  prophet ;  while  the  people, 
gaping  with  horror,  gather  in  the  valleys  below.  A  thick 
cloud  had  descended ;  smoke  arose,  as  if  from  a  furnace, 
and  the  mountain  trembled.  Jahveh  descended  on  the 
summit  of  the  mountain,  and  called  Moses ;  and  Moses 
went  up.     Then  the  god  spoke  : — 

I  am  Jahveh,  thy  god,  which  have  brought  thee  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  Thou 
shalt  have  no  other  gods  before  me ^ 

^  Exodus  XX.  2-3. 


THE  LEVITICAL  PEEIOD  95 

The  law  follows.  It  is  the  work  of  a  man  of  genius ; 
the  work  of  a  casuist. 

The  covenant  has  been  concluded  among  the  summits 
of  Sinai,  in  the  middle  of  the  desert,  far  from  the  land  of 
Israel,  consequently  far  from  the  place  where  the  single 
temple  of  Jerusalem  will  be  raised.  But  it  has  been 
concluded  above  the  ark,  near  the  altar  of  brass,  under 
the  tent  of  tapistry  and  animal-skins  which  is  called  the 
Tabernacle.  But  where  have  the  ark,  the  brass  altar, 
and  the  Tabernacle  remained  for  time  out  of  mind  ?  In 
the  Jerusalem  temple.  After  wandering  through  the 
desert  and  finding  a  temporary  shelter  at  Sichem,  at 
Silo,  at  Bethsames,  at  Cariathiarim,  and  at  Gabaon,  the 
divine  "  furniture  "  is  brought  to  Jerusalem,  and  installed 
for  ever  by  Solomon  in  the  temple.  The  Jerusalem 
temple  is  therefore  the  legitimate  heir  or,  rather,  the 
continuation  of  Sinai. 

Though  civilisation  has  advanced,  the  same  spirit  that 
had  inspired  the  ancient  moshlim  now  inspires  the 
sacerdotal  moshliTn.  We  are  still  in  the  east,  still  at 
Jerusalem ;  the  aim  is  still  to  legitimise  the  actual  laws 
by  attributing  to  them  a  divine  origin,  to  consecrate  the 
institutions  by  deriving  them  from  Jahveh.  We  have,  as 
before,  doctrinal  theses  illustrated  by  legends ;  hopes  and 
ambitions  that  must  be  justified ;  genealogies  created  in 
great  numbers  to  explain  the  Jewish  pretensions  amid  the 
neighbouring  peoples.  The  last  Mosaic  legislation  is, 
like  the  preceding,  at  once  a  theological  legitimation  of 
existing  institutions,  a  solemn  promulgation  of  new  laws, 
and  a  presentment  of  ideal  legislative  views. 

It  is  a  theological  legitimation  of  existing  institutions. 
That  which  exists  is  justified  by  the  divine  will  from  the 
remotest  antiquity ;  the  temple  is  as  it  is,  because  Jahveh 
has  so  commanded ;  the  sacerdotal  caste  rules,  because 
the  priests  are  the  direct  descendants  of  Aaron,  brother 
of  Moses. 

It  is  a  solemn  promulgation  of  new  laws.     The  new 


96  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

laws  are  not  new  laws,  but  the  laws  which  Jahveh  himself 
dictated  to  Moses  long  ago — though  three-fourths  of  the 
laws  of  the  Levitic  period  settle  questions  of  vestments  or 
of  ritual  butchery. 

It  is  a  presentment  of  ideal  legislative  views.  Side  by- 
side  with  the  immediately  useful  enactment  we  have  the 
dream  that  it  will  be  well  to  realise  in  a  better,  and 
probably  approaching,  period.  The  ideal  mingles  through- 
out with  the  real.  Like  that  of  Deuteronomy,  the  sacer- 
dotal legislation  is  at  one  moment  minute,  at  another 
chimerical ;  it  is  always  dogmatic  and  theocratic,  always 
imperialistic. 

But  there  are  other  things  in  view  than  those  of  the 
Deuteronomic  period.  The  characteristic  of  the  Levitical 
period  is  the  need,  on  the  part  of  the  clerical  aristocracy 
of  Jerusalem,  of  a  definitive  organisation. 

The  legislation  of  the  last  great  Mosaic  code  is  really 
that  of  a  powerful  church,  which  radiates  over  the 
surrounding  countries.  It  has  all  the  greatness  and  all 
the  meanness  of  a  constituted  State  which  aims  at  ruling, 
and  is  not  content  merely  to  live.  An  administration,  of 
complicated  structure,  is  formed.  One  thinks  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  so  powerful,  so  administratively  organised 
for  ruling. 

There  is  no  longer  any  question,  for  instance,  in  the 
Levitical  narratives  of  the  massacres  of  the  Canaanites. 
The  Jerusalemitic  cult  has  definitively  triumphed,  round 
about  Jerusalem,  over  the  earlier  pagan  resistance.  The 
horizon  is  broader ;  beyond  the  surrounding  countries 
they  perceive  more  distant  peoples  whom  it  will  be 
possible  to  Judaise. 

The  ancient  covenant  concluded  between  Jahveh  and 
the  Jewish  people  demanded  that,  as  a  reward  for  its 
fidelity,  Jahveh  should  secure  for  Israel  the  free  and 
peaceful  possession  of  that  part  of  Palestine  to  which  the 
priests  of  Jerusalem  had  given  the  mythic  name  of  Israel, 
the  symbol  of  their  ambitions.     Now  that  the  country  is 


THE  LEVITICAL  PEEIOD  97 

almost  subdued,  and,  as  Samaria  alone  resists,  the  ancient 
Israel  is  almost  restored,  the  dream  of  a  more  far-reaching 
Judaisation,  which  we  shall  find  developing  in  the  soul  of 
the  First  Isaiah,  is  already  dawning  in  the  soul  of  the 
priests  of  Jerusalem.  Political  independence,  or  the 
rejection  of  the  yoke  of  Persia  or  Macedonia,  is  always 
included  in  these  Mosaic  epics,  from  the  first  Jehovistic 
mashal  to  the  last  Levitic  genealogies ;  but  in  the  last 
pages  of  the  final  Levitical  narratives  there  appears,  as  in 
the  First  Isaiah,  the  ambition  to  conquer  the  world,  and 
the  covenant  is  enlarged  until  it  promises  the  Jews,  as  a 
reward  of  their  traditional  faithfulness,  not  merely  the 
enjoyment  of  a  part  of  Palestine,  but  the  conquest  of  the 
universe.  Extravagant  dream  for  one  of  the  smallest 
peoples  of  the  earth  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  ! 
Supremely  fruitful  dream,  because  it  would  one  day  lead 
to  its  own  realisation.  And  we  read  this  dream,  perhaps 
for  the  first  time,  in  the  Jewish  epics,  in  the  famous 
episode  of  the  three  sons  of  Noah : — 

And  Noah  began  to  be  an  husbandman,  and  he  planted 
a  vineyard  : 

And  he  drank  of  the  wine,  and  was  drunken ;  and  he 
was  uncovered  within  his  tent. 

And  Ham  saw  the  nakedness  of  his  father,  and  told  his 
two  brethren  without. 

And  Shem  and  Japheth  took  a  garment,  and  laid  it 
upon  both  their  shoulders,  and  went  backward  and  covered 
the  nakedness  of  their  father ;  and  their  faces  were  back- 
ward, and  they  saw  not  their  father's  nakedness. 

And  Noah  awoke  from  his  wine,  and  knew  what  had 
been  done. 

And  he  said :  Cursed  be  Canaan  [son  of  Ham]  :  a 
servant  of  servants  shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren. 

And  he  said :  Blessed  be  Jahveh,  god  of  Shem,  and 
Canaan  shall  be  his  servant. 

God  shall  enlarge  Japheth,  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  Shem.^ 

Shem,  the  narrative  goes  on  to  say,  is  the  father  of 
Genesis  ix.  20-27. 


98  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

Israel  and  the  cognate  peoples.  Ham  and  Canaan  are 
the  fathers  of  the  Canaanites,  who  for  the  last  time 
symbolise  the  goim  who  are  refractory  to  Judaism. 
Japheth  is  the  father  of  Javan,  'laTrtroc,  the  father  of 
the  Greek  peoples  and  all  those  whom  the  Jews  of  the 
third  century  regarded  as  Greeks.  In  Japheth  the  Greek 
world  is,  provided  it  submit  to  the  law  of  Jahveh,  invited 
to  take  part  in  the  blessings  of  the  god. 

We  have  reached  the  period  of  the  high-priest  Simeon  I., 
who  succeeded  the  high-priest  Onias  I.  in  the  year  300. 
Simeon  I.  is  very  probably  the  Simeon  the  Just  of  whom 
Flavins  Josephus  and  the  Siracid  speak,  and  the  Shimeon 
Hasadiq,  of  whom  the  Talmud  speaks,  the  ideal  high- 
priest  of  the  rabbinical  tradition,  he  who  is  followed  by 
decadence.^ 

It  seems  that  after  this  date  the  Mosaic  legends  ceased 
to  enrich  themselves  with  new  narratives  and  fresh 
prescriptions.  Modifications,  corrections,  interpolations, 
and  manipulations  of  the  old  narratives  will  continue  to 
be  made ;  the  largest  additions  will  consist  in  the  inser- 
tion of  entire  psalms  ;  but  the  general  sum  is  fixed,  and 
presently  the  scribes  will  begin  to  arrange  this  infinite 
number  and  variety  of  fragments,  in  order  to  make  a 
single  book  of  them.  Discordant  narratives  placed  in 
succession,  the  same  things  told  several  times  with 
variations  that  are  often  contradictory,  the  legislations 
of  several  centuries  simply  put  side  by  side,  and  hundreds 
of  myths  that  had  their  origin  in  the  most  diverse 
circumstances,  jostling  each  other  with  no  unity  save  that 
of  the  constant  idea  of  the  national  work  that  is  to  be 
accomplished — such  will  be  the  compilation  of  which  the 
scribes  of  the  third  and  second  centuries  will  make  the 
book  of  the  Law,  the  masterpiece  of  oriental  literatures. 


*  See  Appendix  V. 


THE  INTERNATIONALISATION  OF  JUDAISM     99 


§  5.  ^  First  Glance  at  the  Inteniationalisation  of 
Judaism. 

Perhaps  it  is  important  to  religions  to  maintain  the 
historical  value  of  their  sacred  books  ;  so  our  conservative 
theologians  believe.  Perhaps  it  is  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  religions  whether  or  no  their  origin  be  illumined  by  the 
light  of  history ;  so  our  liberal  theologians,  Catholic  and 
Protestant,  believe.  But  the  historian  knows  nothing  of 
these  considerations.  He  neither  attacks  nor  defends 
religions ;  he  studies  how  certain  books,  which  have 
become  sacred  books,  offered  to  the  veneration  of  all  ages 
throughout  the  whole  earth,  came  into  being  among  a 
certain  people,  at  a  certain  period,  in  certain  circum- 
stances, in  order  to  meet  certain  needs. 

Christianity  has  made  the  national  and  nationalist 
books  of  the  smallest  people  of  ancient  Western  Asia 
the  sacred  books  of  the  modern  world ;  in  other  words,  it 
has  internationalised  them.  We  shall  follow  this  work,  as 
we  gradually  cover  a  fresh  stage  in  Jewish  history.  With 
the  first  group  of  the  Jewish  books,  the  books  of  Moses, 
we  catch  our  first  glance  of  the  internationalism  of 
Judaism. 

The  books  of  Moses  were,  as  we  recognised,  born  of  the 
imperious  need,  felt  by  the  little  people  of  Jerusalem,  to 
create  a  past  for  itself,  to  give  itself  a  legislation  of  divine 
origin,  to  legitimise  its  institutions,  to  consecrate  its 
ambitions,  to  sanctify  its  national  hatreds.  Inter- 
nationalisation  is  the  art  of  appropriating  words  that 
have  a  concrete  meaning  in  their  age  and  their  environ- 
ment, and  clothing  these  words  with  a  general  and  purely 
moral  meaning ;  of  ridding  them  of  their  literal  meaning 
in  order  to  give  them  one  that  is  ideal. 

We  will  give  several  examples.  This  chapter,  indeed, 
might  bear  the  title,  "  On  the  Meaning  of  certain  Hebrew 
Words." 


100  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

The  Neighbour. — The  neighbour,  in  Hebrew  rea, 
means  compatriot  in  the  Mosaic  books.  A  Jew  has  no 
other  neighbom-  but  his  compatriot  Jew.  The  Egyptian 
is  not  a  neighbour  for  the  Jew.  The  famous  verse, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself," '  means, 
"  Thou  shalt  love  thy  compatriot  as  thyself."  It  is  a 
fresh  affirmation  of  the  ardent  nationalism  to  which 
Jerusalem  owed  its  fortune. 

The  Stranger. — The  stranger  is  protected  by  the 
Mosaic  law.  But  the  Enghsh  word  "  stranger  "  [in  the 
Biblical  sense  of  "  foreigner  "]  serves  as  a  translation  of 
four  different  Hebrew  words — ger,  toshab,  nocri,  and 
goim.  The  ger  and  the  toshab  are  the  strangers  settled 
in  the  territory  of  Jerusalem  and  obeying  the  Mosaic  law ; 
the  '?iocri  is  the  non-Judaising  stranger ;  the  goi7)i  are  the 
enemy.  Need  we  say  that  the  Mosaic  protection  does  not 
extend  beyond  the  ger  and  the  toshab  ? 

Purity  and  Impurity. — The  meaning  is  strictly 
materialistic.  At  first  an  impure  thing,  tame  in  Hebrew, 
may  have  been  a  thing  taboo,  but  in  the  fourth  and  third 
centuries  it  is  merely  an  infectious  or  infected  thing.  A 
pure  thing  comes  to  mean  a  clean  or  disinfected  thing : 
purification  is  a  hygienic  operation.  In  a  country,  how- 
ever, where  all  the  laws  are  clothed  in  a  religious  form, 
the  operation  is  conducted  according  to  a  special  rite,  and 
gives  a  pretext  for  a  tax  which  the  rulers  receive. 

Woman  is  impure  for  several  days  every  month ;  who- 
ever has  touched  a  corpse  is  impure ;  to  eat  certain  for- 
bidden animals  makes  a  man  impure. 

Ye  shall  not  make  your  souls  abominable  with  any 
creeping  thing  that  creepeth,  that  ye  should  be  defiled 
thereby  :  I  am  Jahveh,  your  god.* 

If  a  woman  shall  be  cleansed  of  her  issue,  then  she 
shall  number  to  herself  seven  days,  and  after  that  she 
shall  be  clean. 

^  Leviticus  xix.  18.  ^  Leviticus  xi.  43. 


THE  INTEENATIONALISATION  OF  JUDAISM    101 

And  on  the  eighth  day  she  shall  take  unto  her  two  turtles, 
or  two  young  pigeons,  and  bring  them  unto  the  priest,  to 
the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation/ 

Holiness. — The  root  of  the  Hebrew  word  qadosh, 
which  is  translated  "  holy,"  means  "  to  separate."  A  holy- 
thing  or  a  holy  man  is  a  thing  or  a  man  separated  from 
others,  especially  designed  for  a  certain  end  ;  it  is  to 
prepare  especially  by  setting  apart.  The  people  of  Israel 
is  holy,  because  it  has  been  set  apart  by  Jahveh  from  the 
other  peoples  of  the  earth.  We  are  nearer  than  before  to 
the  idea  of  taboo.  Even  when  the  word  begins  to  have  a 
moral  signification,  it  only  means  sacred  in  the  sense  of 
consecrated.  The  feminine  qedoshah,  holy,  is  a  neological 
and  post-Biblical  variant,  invented  by  the  modesty  of  the 
rabbis  to  replace  the  real  feminine  qedeshah,  a  genuine 
Biblical  term,  which  means  prostitute ;  a  reminiscence  of 
the  ancient  times  when  prostitution  was  part  of  the  cult 
of  Jahveh. 

Jahveh. — The  history  of  the  divine  name  is  a  remark- 
able example  of  internationalisation.  We  will  presently 
study  the  history  of  the  word  elohim,  which  likewise 
means  god  in  Hebrew — a  god  and  the  gods — and  we  shall 
see  how  the  enlargement  of  the  meaning  of  the  word  has 
corresponded  to  the  development  of  Judaism.  Let  us 
deal  here  with  the  special  name  of  the  special  god  of  the 
Jews,  Jahveh. 

The  Jewish  god  is  designated  in  the  Bible  by  the 
proper  name  Jahveh.  Jahveh  is  his  name,  just  as  Camos 
is  the  name  of  the  Moabite  god,  and  Dagon  the  name  of 
the  Philistine  god.  Whence  did  the  ancient  Israelites 
obtain  the  name  ?  It  is  believed  that  there  was  an  exple- 
tive form  of  the  ancient  word  Jah,  which  closely  resembles 
a   Babylonian  Jah.     Science  is   not   yet  agreed  on  the 

*  Leviticus  xv.  28-29. 


102  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES 

point In  any  case,  Jahveh  is  the  name  of  the  god 

worshipped  at  Jerusalem. 

When  the  Jews,  in  the  third  and  second  centuries 
before  the  present  era,  had  promoted  their  Httle  local  god 
to  the  dignity  of  supreme  god,  master  and  creator  of  the 
universe,  they  had  some  scruple  to  permit  their  lips  to 
utter  the  name  of  so  august  a  personage ;  and  they 
gradually  substituted  for  it  vague  words  like  Adonai, 
which  means  "my  lord."  A  day  came  even  when, 
putting  a  false  interpretation  on  a  verse  of  the  Law,  they 
no  longer  dared  pronounce  the  sacred  name ;  and  as  it 
occurred  on  every  page  of  their  books,  they  decided  to 
read  it  Adonai} 

The  Greek  translators  of  the  Bible  merely  transcribed 
the  Hebrew  proper  names  in  Greek  characters ;  but  they 
dared  not  preserve  Jahveh,  and  they  translated  it  into 
the  Greek  equivalent  of  Adonai,  6  Kvpiog,  the  Lord.  The 
Catholics  followed  them  in  calling  the  ancient  Jahveh 
Dominus,  then  "the  Lord."  The  Protestants  [apart 
from  the  English  Bible]  translated  it  "  the  Eternal." 
To-day  the  learned  students  of  the  Hebrew  texts,  who 
take  credit  for  critical  judgment,  continue  to  say  "  the 
Lord,"  if  they  are  Catholics,  and  "the  Eternal,"  if  they 
are  Protestants  or  Israelites. 

Now  Jahveh  is  a  name,  like  Milkom,  or  Camos,  or 
Jupiter,  or  Wotan.  To  say  Jahveh  is  to  indicate  a  certain 
god,  apart  from  other  gods ;  possibly  a  greater,  better, 
and  purer  god  than  Milkom,  or  Camos,  or  Jupiter,  or 
Wotan,  but  a  particular  god  in  contrast  to  others.  The 
terms  "  Lord  "  and  "  Eternal "  are,  on  the  other  hand, 
just  as  acceptable  to  the  Christians  as  to  the  Jews,  to  the 
Europeans  as  to  the  Asiatics,  to  the  philosophers  as  to  the 
metaphysicians,  to  Kant  as  to  Esdras.  But  from  Jahveh 
to  the  Eternal  or  the  Lord  is  as  far  a  cry  as  from  the 


*  Hebrew  grammarians  still  teach  young  Israelites  to  pronounce  the 
divine  name  Adonai. 


THE  INTERNATIONALISATION  OF  JUDAISM    103 

little  State  of  Jerusalem  to  the  Christian,  Catholic,  and 
universal  Church. 

It  suffices  to  restore  "  Jahveh  "  everywhere  in  the  Bible 
where  we  find  "  the  Eternal "  or  "  the  Lord "  to  put 
things  right.  If  we  keep  "the  Eternal,"  we  are  reading 
a  sacred  book ;  if  we  restore  Jahveh,  we  have  an  historical 
document.  The  anger  of  the  Eternal,  the  vengeance  of 
the  Eternal,  are  phrases  that,  at  the  best,  point  to  a 
somewhat  confused  idea  of  a  vague  divinity.  Vengeance 
and  anger  have  the  sound  of  human  expressions,  applied, 
for  want  of  better,  to  divine  things  that  are  not  our  anger 
and  vengeance.  Jahveh  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  clearly- 
defined  god  :  he  is  the  god  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  of  Jacob, 
and  of  Jerusalem,  who  will  perhaps  conquer  the  world, 
but  only  in  so  far  as  Jerusalem  will  conquer  the  world. 
Jahveh  becoming  the  Eternal  is  a  national  and  nationalist 
god  becoming  international. 


PAST  SECOND 

THE   PROPHETS 


Chapter  I. 
THE  BIETH  OF  PROPHETISM 

§  1.  Hellenism. 

In  the  year  334  before  the  present  era  Alexander  was 
invading  Asia  Minor.  The  Persian  army  was  beaten  in 
the  first  encounter,  and  Asia  Minor  conquered.  In  the 
following  year  the  victory  of  Issus  delivered  the  whole 
empire  of  Darius  to  the  Greeks ;  and  in  332  Alexander 
took  the  town  of  Tyre,  and  subdued  Palestine  without 
striking  a  blow.  A  tradition  tells  that  he  entered  Jeru- 
salem, and  that  the  priests,  going  out  to  meet  him,  obtained 
from  him,  at  the  threshold  of  the  temple,  his  clemency 
for  their  town.  Whether  or  no  Alexander  entered  Jeru- 
salem, Palestine,  together  with  the  whole  of  western  Asia, 
passed  from  the  domination  of  Persia  to  the  domination 
of  Macedonia. 

At  this  date  the  State  of  Jerusalem  has  reached  the 
zenith  of  its  development.  The  work  begun  by  Esdras 
had  had  its  effect.  While  the  other  small  Palestinian 
States  that  were  subject  to  the  Persian  suzerainty  lan- 
guished in  a  state  of  inactive  existence,  the  Jewish  State 
had,  within  the  humble  limits  of  its  walls  and  its 
immediate  surroundings,  entrenched  itself  in  the  intense 
nationalism  that  found  expression  in  the  religion  of 
Jahveh ;  and,  reacting  on  the  country  about  it  by  the 
very  fact  of  its  energy,  the  Jewish  soul  had  gradually 
permeated  Palestine.     The  majority  of  the  small  States 

105 


106  THE  BIETH  OF  PROPHETISM 

of  ancient  Israel  accepted  the  religious  and  moral  hege- 
mony of  Jerusalem ;  the  neighbouring  populations — 
Moab,  Ammon,  and  Edom — vegetated;  even  in  the 
towns  of  Syria  the  name  of  Jahveh  was  becoming  great. 
The  State  of  Samaria  alone  remained  antagonistic. 
Everywhere  else  the  number  of  Judaisers  increased 
constantly,  and  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  might  entertain 
the  great  hopes  they  had  given  themselves,  and  imagine 
their  people  chosen  among  all  peoples  and  the  Jewish 
soul  imposing  its  primacy  on  surrounding  nations. 

But  it  is  important  to  determine  precisely  what  we 
mean  by  these  geographical  expressions — Palestine,  Judah, 
Judaea,  and  the  State  of  Jerusalem. 

After  taking  Tyre  and  Gaza,  Alexander,  now  master  of 
the  Syrian  region,  set  up  a  government  which  was  bounded 
by  the  Mediterranean,  Lebanon,  the  Syrian  and  Arabian 
deserts,  and  Egypt.  That  is  Palestine  ;  though  historians 
also  add  Coele- Syria.  Palestine,  therefore,  forms  in  the 
age  of  Alexander  a  large  province,  embracing :  in  the 
north,  the  small  States  which  were  later  to  be  gathered 
together  under  the  name  of  Galilee ;  to  the  east  of  the 
Jordan,  Galaad  (later  Peraea)  ;  in  the  south-east,  Ammon, 
Moab,  and  Edom ;  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean, 
the  ancient  Philistine  towns  ;  in  the  centre,  lastly,  the  two 
rival  States,  the  two  leading  powers  of  the  group,  Samaria, 
in  which  is  included  part  of  the  ancient  kingdom  of 
Ephraim,  and  Judah,  which  comprises  the  former  kingdom 
of  Judah.  Such  is  the  advance  made  by  the  State  of 
Jerusalem  since  Esdras.  If  the  Davidic  kingdom  is  still 
far  from  being  restored,  the  kingdom  of  Judah  at  least  is 
gained.  In  the  time  of  Esdras  the  State  of  Jerusalem 
consisted  of  the  town  and  the  suiTounding  district ;  in  the 
time  of  Alexander  this  State  has  extended  its  domination 
over  the  territories  of  which  the  kingdom  of  Judah  had 
once  been  composed.  The  land  of  Judah,  however,  is 
now  about  to  receive  the  name  of  Judaea.  In  creating  a 
province   of   Judaea,  with   Jerusalem  as  its  capital   and 


HELLENISM  107 

metropolis,  the  Macedonian  kings  will  merely  consecrate 
an  accomplished  fact.  As  to  Canaan  and  Israel,  these 
ancient  denominations,  now  mere  expressions  of  a 
theoretical  natmre,  correspond  geographically,  sometimes 
to  the  whole,  sometimes  to  the  greater  part,  of  Palestine. 

The  Jerusalem  aristocracy,  mistress  of  Judaea,  already 
ruled  over  a  half  of  Israel,  of  the  land  of  Canaan  promised 
by  Jahveh  to  the  town  of  his  temple,  when  the  first  of  the 
great  crises  which  were  to  overthrow  Judaism  occurred. 
A  new  danger,  Hellenism,  had  appeared,  a  danger  the 
more  formidable  because  it  arose  in  the  very  bosom  of  the 
aristocracy  that  had  once  created  Judaism.  And  the 
Jewish  soul  would,  if  it  were  to  persevere,  need  to  make 
a  greater  effort  than  it  had  needed  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  earlier  to  create  itself. 

It  must  not  be  thought  that  Hellenism  penetrated  the 
State  of  Jerusalem  for  the  first  time  with  the  armies  of 
Alexander.  We  know  that  the  battles  of  Marathon  and 
Salamina  had  had  no  echo  in  the  Jerusalem  of  the 
Restoration.  Many  years  passed  without  the  disciples 
of  Esdras  suspecting  anything  of  the  Greek  civilisation 
which  struggled  against  the  Persian  monarchy  in  Asia 
Minor  and  on  the  islands.  Gradually,  however,  as  the 
Persian  hegemony  gave  security  to  the  roads  in  western 
Asia,  while  the  Greek  and  Persian  armies  fought  their 
alternating  conflict,  the  Hellenic  infiltration  reached 
Palestine.  Tyre,  the  great  commercial  town  of  the  east, 
was  not  far  from  the  mountains  of  Jerusalem  ;  Palestine 
was  a  stage  on  the  road  from  Asia  to  Egypt ;  Palestine 
could  not  escape  the  commercial  invasion  of  the  Greeks. 
At  what  date  did  the  priests  of  Jerusalem  perceive  the 
novelty  that  was  approaching  their  walls  ?  No  document 
informs  us  ;  but  it  is  probable  that  by  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century,  many  years  before  the  arrival  of  Alexander, 
words  of  the  Greek  tongue  were  heard  at  the  foot  of  the 
temple  of  Jahveh.  The  Macedonian  conquest  was  not  a 
sudden  invasion  of  unexpected  conquerors,  of  a  horde  of 


108  THE  BIETH  OF  PEOPHETISM 

victors  who  at  once  take  possession  of  a  great  land  ;  it 
was  the  logical  outcome  of  a  century  and  a-half  of  effort, 
the  conclusion  of  a  long  and  uninterrupted  campaign. 
Asia  was  conquered  by  the  civilisation,  as  much  as  by  the 
armies,  of  Greece.  But  under  the  leadership  of  Alexander 
Hellenism  entered  more  imperiously,  with  the  authority 
of  victory  and  conquest,  the  regions  where  it  had  hitherto 
merely  insinuated  its  influence. 

The  military  success  of  Alexander  mattered  little  to  the 
children  of  Jahveh.  Israel  had  seen  many  such.  The 
triumph  of  the  King  of  Macedonia  might  be  ephemeral ; 
it  crushed  no  hope.  And,  indeed,  had  not  the  sacred 
dogmatics  possible  explanations  of  all  the  victories  of  the 
goim  ?  Whether  the  master  of  the  hour  was  called 
Alexander  or  Darius,  the  stern  perseverance  of  the  Jew 
would  regard  with  disdain  the  soldier  who  won  battles  ; 
the  soul  which  had  been  born  again,  had  lived  and  grown, 
after  Nabuchodonosor,  would  be  able  to  resist  the  new 
master.  But  those  at  Jerusalem  who  clung  to  the  old 
traditions  of  Esdras  and  Deuteronomy  were  alarmed,  in 
the  year  332,  to  see  Jews  about  them  beginning  to  live 
the  Hellenic  life. 

Thus  was  opened  a  new  epoch  of  Judaism.  In  future 
the  Jewish  traditionalism  will  oppose  itself  implacably  to 
Hellenic  ways.  There  begins,  in  the  heart  of  Judaism, 
that  struggle  of  parties  which  is  the  key  of  Jewish  history 
— the  struggle  of  nationalism  and  foreign  influence. 

At  Jerusalem,  however,  nationalism  was  the  party  of 
democracy,  Hellenism  the  party  of  the  ruling  aristocracy. 

The  Jewish  soul  had  been  formed  on  the  principle  of  a 
complete  isolation  from  other  peoples.  From  that  time 
everything  had  been  laid  down  in  the  Jewish  law,  in  that 
illustration  of  the  Jewish  law  which  the  Jewish  literature 
is,  w4th  a  view  to  keeping  the  men  of  Jerusalem  together 
among  other  men  as  a  kind  of  church,  a  caste  of  saints, 
the  privileged  children  of  the  divinity,  enjoying  his 
especial  protection.     If  the  Jews  began  to  live  the  life 


HELLENISM  109 

of  other  peoples,  was  it  not  all  over  with  the  Jewish  soul  ? 

The  men  of  Jerusalem  in  the  time  of  Esdras  had 
perceived  in  a  flash  of  genius  the  only  conditions  of 
existence  that  were  possible  for  them ;  the  same  flash  of 
genius  came  to  some  men  of  Jerusalem  a  century  and 
a-half  later,  in  the  time  of  Alexander.  The  Jewish  soul 
must  resist  Hellenism  with  all  its  strength,  must  remain 
purely  Jewish  in  face  of  Hellenism,  or  it  must  perish. 
The  task  of  the  Jews  was  to  extirpate  from  their  midst 
every  tendency  to  Hellenisation,  to  set  up  among  them  an 
Inquisition  which  should  preserve  the  hopes  of  Judaism 
from  any  alloy. 

The  historians  of  Judaism  have  not  understood  that  the 
tempests  of  Judaism  took  place  between  Jews  from  the 
time  that  Hellenism  invaded  Asia.  The  task  of  Judaism 
in  the  third  and  second  centuries  was  to  struggle,  not 
against  the  ways  and  ideas  of  other  nations,  but  against 
the  introduction  of  these  ways  and  ideas  into  Israel. 

However  sombre  a  fanaticism  may  have  always  ruled 
in  the  little  State  of  Jerusalem,  it  would  be  absurd  to 
suppose  that  there  were  not  in  it,  as  elsewhere,  minds 
that  were  inclined  to  more  moderate  ways,  to  some  indul- 
gence for  foreign  ideas,  some  tenderness  for  art  and 
elegance.  Men  of  this  character  cannot  have  been 
wanting  in  the  most  sombre  surroundings,  and  the 
Macedonian  conquest  discovered  some  within  the  walls 
of  Jerusalem,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  puritans.  It 
happened,  however,  as  is  quite  natural,  that  the  new 
tendencies  were  especially  found  among  the  aristocracy. 

The  desire  of  luxury  appears  inevitably  among  a 
prosperous  aristocracy,  even  if  it  be  a  clerical  aristocracy. 
The  clerical  aristocracy  held  nearly  the  whole  wealth  of 
the  country,  thanks  to  the  numerous  taxes  which  had 
been  instituted,  in  the  form  of  tithes,  offerings,  and 
propitiations,  by  the  Deuteronomic  law ;  its  power,  estab- 
lished by  divine  right,  was  absolute.  Among  the  priests 
of   Jerusalem    there  were  wealthy  men  who  longed  for 


110  THE  BIRTH  OF  PROPHETISM 

more  spacious  and  better  decorated  houses.  They  modified 
the  old  traditional  garment ;  the  fashion  made  its  appear- 
ance in  the  approach  to  the  temple  of  Jahveh.  They 
affected  to  speak  Greek ;  their  wives  wore  eccentric 
dresses ;  richer  wines  flowed  ;  possibly  there  were  flowers 
on  the  table.  I  do  not  exaggerate ;  these  abominations 
are  described  with  indignation  in  the  prophetic  books. 

Hellenisation  took  place  in  another  way.  People  who 
are  little  familiar  with  the  biblical  writings  will  be 
astonished  to  learn  that  they  not  only  anathematise 
luxury,  but  they  condemn  commerce  as  a  crime.  Com- 
merce became  afterwards  the  great  occupation  of  the 
Jews,  because  new  conditions  of  existence  made  new 
souls.  In  developing  commerce  throughout  Asia,  the 
Macedonian  conquest  introduced  it  into  Jerusalem,  and 
some  of  the  Jews  became  merchants.  Naturally  they 
became  rich ;  and,  just  as  naturally,  they  sought  luxury. 
Once  more  the  puritans  raised  the  cry  of  scandal. 

A  century  later  the  evil  was  at  its  height  when, 
probably  for  the  first  time  in  history,  the  Jews  attacked 
finance,  and  Joseph,  son  of  Tobias,  became  farmer- 
general  of  the  Ptolemies  for  the  government  of  Coele- 
Syria. 

If  Hellenisation  had  triumphed  at  Jerusalem,  the  world 
would  never  have  known  either  the  Jewish  conquest  or 
Christianity.  But  there  was  a  formidable  reaction  of  the 
old  nationalism,  a  prodigious  outflame  of  the  implacable 
soul  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  it  was  among  the  people,  the 
humble,  that  the  movement  arose,  and  grew,  and 
triumphed.  Starting  from  the  people,  the  nationalist 
reaction  assumed  a  democratic  character,  which  would  be 
an  essential  part  of  Judaism. 

Jewish  patriotism  understood  and  proved  that  the 
correction  of  its  leaders  is  a  supreme  law,  that  the  leaders 
must  set  an  example  of  obedience  to  the  traditions,  that 
it  is  useless  to  speak  to  the  people  of  discipline  when  the 
leaders  have  not  first  obeyed  the  most  rigorous  of  disci- 


THE  MEN  OF  GOD  111 

plines,  and  that  there  is  no  real  nationahsm  in  a  State  in 
which  guilty  leaders  are  tolerated. 

This  appeal  to  the  ancient  traditions  and  the  necessary 
discipline,  this  return  to  an  uncompromising  nationalism, 
this  renascence  of  the  imperialism  of  Jerusalem,  was  the 
work  of  the  prophets. 


§  2.  The  Men  of  God. 

In  the  remotest  periods  of  the  history  of  peoples  we 
find  sorcerers,  mercenary  diviners,  strange  healers,  feared 
and  venerated,  in  the  whole  of  the  east,  in  the  west  and 
Africa  as  well  as  Palestine,  among  the  nomad  leaders  of 
flocks,  in  the  first  settlements  of  primitive  husbandmen, 
in  the  little  cities  surrounded  with  their  walls  of  earth,  in 
the  old  towns  where  a  formidable  sultan  rules  with  his 
harem  and  janissaries,  in  the  shade  of  the  oldest 
sanctuaries,  and  in  the  valleys  where  the  caravans  pass. 

These  men,  with  their  disordered  gestures,  their 
incoherent  speech,  and  their  wild  eyes,  are  sometimes 
mad,  sometimes  epileptic.  They  wander  about  in  rags, 
thin  and  famished  and  sordid.  You  meet  them  near  the 
villages,  but  they  live  in  the  desert  places.  The  caverns 
are  their  homes ;  they  spend  long  hours  in  solitude. 
They  have  no  trade.  When  a  beast  or  a  man  falls  ill, 
they  know  the  remedy  that  will  cure;  when  difficult 
projects  are  in  contemplation,  they  utter  words  in  which 
one  divines  the  future.  A  few  silver  coins  or  measures  of 
corn  are  their  salary. 

These  victims  of  hallucination  are  regarded  as  inspired 
by  the  deity.  Among  primitive  peoples  the  insane  was 
always  considered  a  sacred  being.  It  was  the  same  in 
Judaea  as  in  the  rest  of  the  world ;  it  is  the  same  in  the 
east  to-day.  Madness  is  a  sacred  malady ;  epilepsy  is  a 
divine  phenomenon.  The  divine  word  can  only  be  im- 
parted to  human  ears  by  means  of  this  delirium,  in  which 


112  THE  BIRTH  OF  PROPHETISM 

a  man  loses  his  individuality  and  becomes  a  passive 
instrument  of  inspiration.  Saint  Paul  will  explain  it  in 
the  most  precise  manner  in  a  later  age.' 

On  that  account  they  are  venerated  and  feared.  These 
haggard  sorcerers  and  famished  soothsayers  see  something 
in  the  future,  and  control  evil  spirits.  With  all  their 
rags  they  bear  on  their  brows  the  sign  of  Jahveh.  They 
are  men  of  god. 

The  ancient  tribes  of  Palestine,  Israel  as  well  as  Moab, 
Ammon,  Edom,  and  Syria,  swarmed  with  men  of  god. 
The  Bible  has  preserved  the  memory  of  these  men  of 
god  in  pages  to  which  we  cannot  grant  an  historical 
value,  but  which  undeniably  aiford  a  valuable  picture  of 
customs. 

There  was  once  [eleven  hundred  years  before  the 
present  era]  a  man  of  Benjamin,  whose  name  was  Cis, 
the  son  of  Abiel,  the  son  of  Zeror,  the  son  of  Bechorath, 
the  son  of  Aphiah,  a  Benjamite,  a  mighty  man  of  power. 

And  he  had  a  son  whose  name  was  Saul,  a  choice  young 
man  and  a  goodly ;  and  there  was  not  among  the  children 
of  Israel  a  goodlier  person  than  he  ;  from  his  shoulders 
and  upward  he  was  higher  than  any  of  the  people. 

And  the  asses  of  Cis,  Saul's  father,  were  lost.  And  Cis 
said  to  Saul  his  son :  Take  now  one  of  the  servants  with 
thee,  and  arise,  go  seek  the  asses. 

And  he  passed  by  mount  Ephraim,  and  passed  through 
the  land  of  Salisa,  but  they  found  them  not ;  then  they 
passed  through  the  land  of  Salim,  and  there  they  were 
not ;  and  he  passed  through  the  land  of  Jemini,  but  they 
found  them  not. 

And  when  they  were  come  to  the  land  of  Suph,  Saul 
said  to  his  servant  that  was  with  him  :  Come  and  let  us 
return ;  lest  my  father  leave  caring  for  the  asses,  and  take 
thought  for  us. 

And  the  servant  said  unto  him  :  Behold  now,  there  is 
in  this  city  a  man  of  God,  and  he  is  an  honourable  man. 
All  that  he  saith  cometh  surely  to  pass.  Now  let  us  go 
thither.  Peradventure  he  can  show  us  our  way  that  we 
should  go. 

Then  said  Saul  to  his  servant :  Let  us  go,  but,  behold, 

'  1  CorinthiaJis  xii.  and  xiv. 


THE  MEN  OF  GOD  113 

if  we  go,  what  shall  we  bring  the  man  of  God  ?  For  the 
bread  is  spent  in  our  vessels,  and  there  is  not  a  present  to 
bring  to  the  man  of  God ;  what  have  we  ? 

And  the  servant  answered  Saul  again,  and  said : 
Behold,  I  have  here  at  hand  the  fourth  part  of  a  shekel  of 
silver  ;  that  will  I  give  to  the  man  of  God,  to  tell  us  our 
way 

Then  said  Saul  to  his  servant :  Well  said,  come,  let  us 
go.     So  they  went  unto  the  city  where  the  man  of  God  was. 

And  as  they  went  up  the  hill  to  the  city,  they  found 
young  maidens  going  out  to  draw  water,  and  said  unto 
them  :  Is  the  seer  here  ? 

And  they  answered  them  and  said  :  He  is  ;  behold,  he 
is  before  thee ;  make  haste 

As  soon  as  ye  be  come  unto  the  city,  ye  shall  straight- 
way find  him,  before  he  go  up  to  the  high  place  to  eat. 
Now  therefore  get  you  up. 

And  they  went  up  into  the  city ;  and  when  they  were 
come  into  the  city,  behold,  Samuel  came  out  against  them, 
for  to  go  up  to  the  high  place 

Then  Saul  drew  near  to  Samuel  in  the  gate  of  the  city, 
and  said :  Tell  me,  I  pray  thee,  where  the  seer's  house  is. 

And  Samuel  answered  Saul,  and  said :  I  am  the  seer  : 
go  up  before  me  unto  the  high  place  ;  for  ye  shall  eat  with 
me  to-day,  and  to-morrow  morning  I  will  let  thee  go,  and 
will  tell  thee  all  that  is  in  thine  heart. 

And  as  for  thine  asses  that  were  lost  three  days  ago, 
set  not  thy  mind  on  them,  for  they  are  found. ^ 

The  aged  wizard  Samuel,  who  was  able  to  find  the  lost 
asses  for  a  fourth  part  of  a  shekel  of  silver,  seems  to  have 
delivered  his  consultation  with  a  somewhat  simple  appa- 
ratus on  that  day.  It  was  not  always  so — with  some  of 
his  colleagues,  if  not  with  Samuel.  And  the  Bible  does 
not  fail  to  give  us  some  information  on  the  way  in  which, 
at  the  remote  epoch  of  the  legend,  the  predictions  and 
conjurations  took  place. 

The  anecdote  of  Saul,  the  asses,  and  Samuel  continues ; 
and,  after  the  meal,  Samuel  says  to  Saul,  among  other 
things,  and  in  the  midst  of  theologico-dogmatic  discourses 
after  the  manner  of  doctors  of  the  Esdras  school : — 

^  1  Samuel  ix.  1-20.     Certain  features  of   this  translation   are   taken 
from  Lemaistre  de  Saci. 


114  THE  BIRTH  OF  PROPHETISM 

When  thou  shalt  have  gone  on  forward  from  thence, 
thou  shalt  come  to  the  oak  of  Thabor,  and  there  shall 
meet  thee  three  men  going  up  to  God  to  Bethel,  one 
carrying  three  kids,  and  another  carrying  three  loaves  of 
bread,  and  another  carrying  a  bottle  of  wine : 

And  they  will  salute  thee,  and  give  thee  two  loaves  of 
bread  ;  which  thou  shalt  receive  of  their  hands. 

After  that  thou  shalt  come  to  Guibea-of-God,  where  is 
the  garrison  of  the  Philistines  ;  and  it  shall  come  to  pass, 
when  thou  art  come  thither  to  the  city,  that  thou  shalt 
meet  a  company  of  prophets  coming  down  from  the  high 
place  with  a  psaltery,  and  a  tabret,  and  a  pipe,  and  a  harp 
before  them  ;  and  they  shall  prophesy  : 

And  the  spirit  of  Jahveh  will  come  upon  thee  ;  and 
thou  shalt  prophesy  with  them,  and  shalt  be  turned  into 
another  man.^  _ 

To  prophesy  means,  in  Hebre^^,  to  utter  cries  and 
dance  to  the  sound  of  instruments. 

Consider  David,  later,  bringing  back  to  Jerusalem  the 
ark  of  Jahveh  : — 

David,  clothed  with  a  linen  tunic,  danced  before  Jahveh 
with  all  his  might. 

So  David  and  all  the  house  of  Israel  brought  up  the 
ark  of  Jahveh  with  shouting,  and  with  the  sound  of  the 
trumpet. 

And  as  the  ark  of  Jahveh  came  into  the  city  of  David, 
Michol,  Saul's  daughter  (and  David's  wife),  looked  through 
a  window  and  saw  King  David  leaping  and  dancing  before 
the  face  of  Jahveh  ;  and  she  despised  him  in  her  heart 

When  David  returned  to  bless  his  household,  Michol 
the  daughter  of  Saul  came  out  to  meet  him,  and  said : 
How  glorious  was  the  king  of  Israel  to-day,  who  un- 
covered himself  in  the  eyes  of  the  handmaids  of  his 
servants,  and  appeared  half-naked  like  a  buffoon.^ 

I  do  not  regard  the  legends  of  David,  Saul,  and  especially 
Samuel,  as  having  historical  value  ;  but  they  imply  certain 
ways.  Israel  could  not  be  an  exception  amid  the  other 
peoples  of  the  East.  The  historical  probability  that 
epileptic  wizards,  diviners,  and  healers,  with  the  gestures 
and  speech  of  madmen,  filled  Palestine,  both  at  the  time 

1  1  Samuel  x.  3-6.  ^  2  Samuel  vi.  14-20. 


THE  MEN  OF  GOD  115 

of  the  ancient  kingdoms  and  at  that  of  the  Kestoration,  is 
confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  the  Bibhcal  books. 

What  name  did  these  wizards  bear  in  Palestine  ?  The 
Bible  uses  several  words  of  which  the  meaning  is  the 
more  vague  because  of  the  wilful  confusion  that  its  writers 
have  made  between  the  real  wizard  of  history  and  the 
idealised  seer  of  the  legend.  The  three  words  most 
frequently  used  are  : — 

Ish  haelohim,  the  man  of  god ; 

Hozeh,  or  roeh,  the  seer  ; 

Nabi,  the  speaker,  more  particularly  the  prophet. 

It  is  impossible,  in  the  actual  condition  of  science,  to 
determine  the  chronological  order  of  these  three  designa- 
tions. The  third  has  been  accepted  by  usage  to  designate 
the  prophets  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word ;  the  first, 
probably  earlier  than  the  other  two,  expresses  rather  the 
primitive  idea  of  the  healing  diviner,  an  insane  man — that 
is  to  say,  a  man  inspired  by  a  god ;  the  second,  and  vaguer, 
term  is  less  frequently  used,  and  is  hardly  applicable  to 
any  but  Samuel  or  Gad.  Hence,  while  warning  the 
reader  that  the  choice  is  arbitrary,  I  beg  to  be  allowed, 
for  the  purpose  of  explaining  more  clearly,  to  neglect  the 
term  "  seer "  {roeh  or  hozeh)  ;  to  restrict  the  word 
"  prophet "  (7iabi)  to  the  idealised  prophetic  type ;  and 
to  keep  for  the  historical  Israelitic  wizard  the  name  of 
"man  of  god"  (ish  haelohim). 

For  the  moment  we  have  to  see  how  the  man  of  god 
was  made  a  prophet. 

The  men  of  god  whom  we  find  in  the  real  history  of 
ancient  Israel,  just  as  in  Moab,  Ammon,  Edom,  Syria, 
and  in  the  whole  of  the  East  and  among  all  primitive 
peoples,  did  not  play  any  particular  part  in  ancient  Israel. 
They  were,  as  everywhere  else,  tellers  of  good  stories, 
bonesetters  to  whom  every  one  had  recourse  when  neces- 
sary, and  who  gave  their  advice  in  the  form  of  chants,  or 
rather  howls,  and  of  dances,  or  rather  stamping  and 
frenzied  leaping. 


116  THE  BIETH  OF  PEOPHETISM 

At  the  time  of  the  Eestoration  we  find  them  once  more, 
eternal  features  of  the  East,  always  the  same,  miserable 
and  powerful  wizards,  whose  ravings  are  inspired  by 
Jahveh ;  just  as  we  shall  see  them  again  in  the  Jewish  world 
of  St.  Paul,  and  as  we  find  them  in  our  own  time  under 
the  name  of  howling  and  dancing  dervishes.  What  part 
did  they  play  in  the  restored  Jerusalem  of  the  fifth  and 
the  fourth  centuries?  No  other  than  that  which  their 
ancestors  had  played  in  the  ancient  kingdoms ;  no  other 
than  that  which  their  colleagues  played  in  the  surrounding 
peoples — that  is  to  say,  none. 

They  would  have  passed  away,  forgotten  and  of  no 
account,  had  their  names  not  served  to  shelter  a  literary 
artifice  of  the  Jewish  writers  of  the  fourth  century :  had 
not  the  historical  men  of  god  suggested  to  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  writers  of  the  Bible  the  ideal  and  purely  literary 
type  of  the  prophets. 

The  priests  of  Jerusalem  who  had  related,  in  the  earliest 
books  of  the  Bible,  how  Jahveh  punished  national  infidelity 
and  rewarded  national  fidelity,  had  imagined  that  Jahveh 
had,  in  the  course  of  these  vicissitudes,  often  given  direct 
advice  to  his  people.  With  the  spirit  of  hostility  to 
abstractions  which  caused  all  their  teachings  to  pass 
through  the  living  form  of  legends,  they  had  thought  it 
necessary  that,  from  time  to  time,  sacred  personages 
should  have,  on  the  part  of  Jahveh,  warned  their  ancestors, 
whose  history  they  were  relating,  of  the  chastisements 
that  awaited  them  and  the  promises  that  were  held  out 
to  them ;  they  had  pretended  that  Jahveh  himself  had, 
all  through  this  tragic  and  glorious  history,  raised  up 
inspired  men  to  speak  in  his  name,  and  to  repeat  in  his 
name,  at  every  turn  in  Jewish  history,  from  the  settle- 
ment in  Palestine  until  Nabuchodonosor  : — 

Thus  saith  Jahveh :  Because  ye  have  forsaken  Jahveh, 
your  god,  and  prostituted  yourselves  to  the  Baals  and 
Astartes,  I  will  strike  the  fathers  and  the  children,  the 
neighbour  and  his  neighbour Thus  saith  Jahveh:  If 


THE  MEN  OF  GOD  117 

ye  return  to  Jahveh,  your  god,  I  will  make  your  captives 
return  to  the  land  that  I  gave  to  their  fathers,  and  I  will 
break  your  chains,  and  I  will  take  from  your  necks  the 
yoke  of  your  enemies 

These  inspired  men  are,  therefore,  above  all,  admonishers 
invented  by  the  Biblical  writers  in  order  to  make  more 
precise  the  teaching  that  they  wish  to  give  to  their  readers. 
Not  only  the  warnings,  but  the  warners  themselves,  might 
be  omitted  from  the  historical  books  without  the  narrative 
suffering  in  the  least.  The  books  of  Samuel  and  Kings 
are  surcharged  with  these  episodic  personages  ;  in  every 
page  we  find  them  playing  the  part  of  the  moralists  with 
which  Alexander  Dumas  filled  his  compositions,  a  sort  of 
Desgenais  speaking  in  the  name  of  public  morality — that 
is  to  say,  to  keep  to  the  sentiment  of  the  Bible,  in  the 
name  of  Jahveh. 

The  Jewish  spirit  always  disliked  abstract  instruction. 
Instead  of  a  simple  statement  that  King  David  committed 
a  sin  in  taking  the  wife  of  his  servant  Uriah,  and  that 
this  sin  deserved  punishment,  we  read  : — 

The  thing  that  David  had  done  displeased  Jahveh. 

And  Jahveh  sent  Nathan  unto  David.  And  he  came 
unto  him,  and  said  unto  him  : 

Wherefore  hast  thou  despised  the  commandment 

of  Jahveh,  to  do  evil  in  his  sight  ? 

Behold,  I  will  raise  up  evil  against  thee  out  of  thine 
own  house. ^ 

It  is  an  invention.  Who  were  these  admonishers  who 
were  supposed  to  have  the  task  of  announcing  the  orders 
of  Jahveh  to  the  people  of  Israel  ?  The  Jerusalem  writers 
might  have  assigned  the  part  to  priests  of  the  earlier 
times ;  and  some  of  them  did  so.  But,  as  a  rule,  they 
preferred  to  assign  the  part  to  special  personages ;  and, 
looking  round  them,  they  selected  the  men  of  god. 

They  supposed  that  in  former  times  there  were  among 
these   demented   wizards,    these   dreaded   and   venerated 

'  2  Samuel  xi.  27  ;  xii.  1,  9,  and  11. 


118  THE  BIRTH  OF  PROPHETISM 

diviners,  who  were  seen  wandering  near  the  towns  and 
whose  ravings  seemed  to  have  a  divine  origin,  some  who 
were  especially  inspired  by  Jahveh,  and  charged  with  the 
mission  of  speaking  to  Israel  in  his  name.  The  character 
was  thus  created.  It  answered  perfectly  the  needs  of 
the  writers,  and  the  fiction  was  gradually  elaborated ; 
under  the  name  of  prophets,  the  men  of  god  came  and 
went  on  behalf  of  Jahveh  throughout  Jewish  history, 
drawing  from  events  the  lesson  that  it  suited  the  priest- 
writers  to  give  to  their  people. 

The  men  of  god  were  thus  raised  to  the  rank  of 
prophets.  But  it  must  be  quite  understood  that  in  the 
time  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  kingdoms  there  had  never 
been,  and  there  was  not  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries, 
any  man  of  god  who  professed  to  give  warnings  to  the 
Jewish  people  at  the  command  of  Jahveh.  In  accordance 
with  the  conventional  definitions  which  I  proposed  for 
the  words  "  man  of  god"  and  "  prophet,"  we  must  say 
that,  in  the  Judaea  of  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries,  as  in 
all  ancient  kingdoms  and  in  the  Palestine  of  the  third 
and  second  centuries,  there  were,  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places,  humble  men  of  god,  but  that,  in  point  of  fact, 
there  were  no  prophets. 

Later,  during  the  first  century  of  the  present  era,  when 
the  ancient  books  of  Judaism  had  become  sacred  books, 
when  everybody  in  Judaea  believed  in  the  historical  reality 
of  the  Samuels,  Elijahs,  Jeremiahs,  and  Isaiahs,  it  is  true 
that  some  of  these  poor  healers  and  fortune-tellers,  who 
always  abounded  in  Palestine,  tried  to  set  up  as  new 
Elijahs  and  Jeremiahs  ;  this  is  the  only  period  in  which 
there  were,  historically,  prophets  in  Palestine — pale 
imitators  of  fictitious  heroes,  such  as  John  the  Baptist, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  or  Theudas. 

We  may  therefore  define  the  prophets  as : — 

Fictitious  characters,  invented  by  the  Jewish  writers  of 
the  fourth  and  succeeding  centuries,  on  an  idealised  model 
of  the  men  of  god  (that  is  to  say,  the  wizards,  soothsayers, 


THE  MEN  OF  GOD  119 

and  healers)  who  were  found  throughout  the  east,  and 
interpolated  by  them  in  their  national  history  to  play  the 
part  of  admonishers  enjoined  by  Jahveh  to  give  a  lesson 
to  his  people. 

To  explain  the  presence  of  the  prophets  in  the  books 
of  the  Bible,  it  is  by  no  means  necessary  to  suppose  that 
there  had  been  prophets  in  the  days  of  the  ancient 
kingdoms,  or  were  in  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries ;  it 
was  enough  that  there  had  been,  and  were,  men  of  god. 
For  the  Middle  Ages  to  create  the  epic  character  of 
Merlin  the  Enchanter,  it  was  not  necessary  that  a  Merlin 
the  Enchanter  should  have  existed  in  the  Middle  Ages ; 
it  was  enough  that  there  were  wizards,  and  that  some 
writer  sought  to  idealise  them.  The  prophets  of  Israel 
are  the  Merlins  of  Judaism.' 

The  fiction  remained  poor,  however,  in  the  earlier 
books  of  the  Bible.  The  characters  of  Samuel,  Elijah, 
and  Elisha  had  not  yet  been  created,  or  at  least  not  yet 
developed ;  the  prophet-admonishers  brought  on  to  the 
scene  by  the  earlier  writers  were  feeble  expressions  of  a 
mediocre  literary  device.  Lifeless  and  uninteresting 
phantoms,  they  would  have  been  lost  in  oblivion  if,  some 
day  about  the  year  332  and  the  conquest  of  Jerusalem  by 
Alexander,  the  fiction  had  not  been  suddenly  raised  from 
its  lowly  level  and  developed,  and  received  at  once  an 
unexampled  range. 

About  the  year  332,  in  fact,  when  it  was  necessary  to 
raise  a  cry  of  alarm  on  account  of  the  new  peril  that 
threatened  Judaism,  to  discover  a  more  impressive 
formula,  to  arrest  with  inspired  language  the  men  who 
were  leading  the  country  of  the  Jews  to  destruction,  some 
writer  at  Jerusalem  imagined  that,  in  the  remote  period 
of  kings  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Achaz,  and  Jeroboam,  there 
was  a  man  of  god,  a  soothsayer — that  is  to  say,  a  prophet 
— of  the  name  of  Hosea,  and  that  this  Hosea  had  begun 

*  See  Appendix  VI. 


120  THE  BIETH  OF  PEOPHETISM 

to  speak  in  the  name  of  Jahveh  and  warn  Israel,  reproach 
it  with  its  faults,  and  foretell  its  punishment.  Instead, 
however,  of  telling  the  fact  in  a  few  dry  lines,  as  the 
writers  of  the  books  of  Kings  had  done,  when  they 
described  the  prophet  Nathan  accosting  King  David,  the 
new  writer  conceived  the  extraordinary  idea  of  inventing 
a  series  of  long  discourses  and  saying  to  his  contem- 
poraries : — 

The  word  of  Jahveh  that  came  unto  Hosea,  the  son  of 
Beeri,  in  the  days  of  Uzziah,  Jotham,  Achaz,  and 
Hezekiah,  kings  of  Judah,  and  in  the  days  of  Jeroboam, 
king  of  Israel.^ 

The  speeches  of  Hosea  are  admonitions,  threats,  and 
promises.  But  the  dry  admonitions  of  the  earlier  Biblical 
books  are  now  changed  into  impassioned  odes,  in  which 
the  oriental  imagination  displays  itself  in  a  thousand 
picturesque  and  lyrical  inventions.  The  cold  moralists 
of  earlier  times  become  great  inspired  figures  who,  in  the 
name  of  the  national  god,  speak  the  language  that  befits 
his  terrible  anger,  or  his  terrible  love.  The  earlier 
Biblical  writers  had  drawn  from  the  events  of  their 
national  history,  and  from  their  ancient  legends,  some 
teaching  for  the  use  of  their  contemporaries  ;  in  order  to 
express  this  teaching  better  they  had  mingled  with  the 
events  and  the  legends,  as  spokesmen,  certain  men  of  god, 
uttering  a  few  words  dictated  to  them  by  Jahveh  and  then 
withdrawing  into  obscurity.  Of  these  vague  silhouettes 
of  men  of  god  the  present  generation  now  made  the 
tribunes,  the  orators,  and  the  national  poets  who  were 
about  to  become  the  prophets. 

It  was  the  great  creation  of  Jewish  literature.  In  this 
way  the  men  of  the  popular  party  took  from  the  very 
hands  of  the  aristocratic  writers  the  weapon  they  had 
fashioned,  the  literary  artifice  they  had  suggested ;  but 
they  magnified  it  at  once. 

'  Hosea  i.  1. 


THE  MEN  OF  GOD  121 

The  invention  succeeded,  as  a  matter  of  fact.  Imme- 
diately after  Hosea,  another  writer  invented  Amos. 

Amos  is  conceived  to  be  a  shepherd,  a  contemporary 
of  Hosea :  "an  herdsman,  son  of  an  herdsman,  and  a 
gatherer  of  wild  figs ;  and  Jahveh  took  him  as  he  followed 
the  flock,  and  said  unto  him,  Go,  prophesy  unto  my  people 
Israel." ' 

Once  more  we  read :  "  The  words  of  Amos,  who  was 
among  the  herdmen  of  Tekoa,  and  the  visions  which  he 
saw  concerning  Israel,  in  the  days  of  Uzziah,  king  of 
Judah,  and  in  the  days  of  Jeroboam,  king  of  Israel."  ^ 

The  prophetic  books  are  not  problem-books.  They  do 
not  relate  recent  or  contemporary  events  in  the  form  of 
ancient  happenings.  The  authors  of  the  prophecies,  like 
all  the  writers  of  the  Bible,  wish  to  give  a  lesson  to  their 
contemporaries ;  and,  like  all  the  writers  of  the  Bible,  they 
refuse  to  preach  in  the  abstract.  Round  the  lesson  that 
they  wish  to  give  they  create  an  impassioned  scene  with 
the  memories  or  the  legends  of  their  national  past. 

But  if  the  writers  place  themselves  in  the  time  of  an 
Amos  and  an  Hosea,  if  the  facts  in  which  they  frame 
their  discourses  are  ancient  facts,  the  ideas  they  express 
are  modern  ideas.  Their  preoccupation  is  obvious  ;  and, 
in  spite  of  the  lie  about  their  false  antiquity,  they  are  so 
candid  and  sincere  that,  in  the  language  which  they  put 
into  the  mouths  of  the  idealised  ancient  men  of  god  of 
Ephraim  and  Judah,  we  hear  the  echo  of  the  great  events 
of  the  Macedonian  period. 

Lastly,  we  must  not  forget  that  the  prophetic  books  are 
pseudonymous ;  that  is  to  say  that,  though  composed  in 
the  fourth  and  third  centuries,  they  pretend  to  be  the 
works  of  writers  of  the  eighth,  seventh,  and  sixth  cen- 
turies. 

There  is  no  room  to  doubt  that  the  author  of  the 
discourses  of   Hosea  professed,   about   the  year  332,   to 

'  Amos  vii.  14-15.  ^  Ajuos  i.  1. 


122  THE  BIETH  OF  PEOPHETISM 

publish  the  authentic  discourses  which  Hosea  had  pro- 
nounced in  the  eighth  century.  The  claim  that  these 
lost  and  forgotten  discourses  were  suddenly  recovered 
would  hardly  astonish  an  age  that  was  incapable  of 
criticism,  when  there  were  at  times  only  one  or  two 
copies  of  a  book  in  existence. 

The  Jewish  writers  always  proceeded  in  this  way.  The 
Bible  is  a  collection  of  books  which  were  not  written  by 
the  authors  to  whom  they  are  ascribed.  A  new  work 
needed  the  authority  of  an  older  work ;  the  work  of  a 
contemporary  had  to  borrow  the  authority  of  some 
venerable  name.  The  Mosaic  moshlim  had  acted  in  this 
way,  and  the  psalmists  and  writers  of  apocalypses  would 
do  the  same.  Was  it  not  necessary  to  legitimise  and 
sanctify  the  lesson  to  be  given  to  the  people  *? 

The  prophets  are,  as  we  said,  fictitious  characters 
invented  by  the  Jewish  writers  to  figure  in  the  history  of 
their  country.  The  prophetic  books  are  literary  com- 
positions which  their  authors  put  forward  as  the  works  of 
these  characters.  They  are  imaginative  works  published 
as  works  that  have  reality ;  books  of  sermons  which  are 
presented  as  genuine. 

At  Athens,  among  peoples  educated  in  the  school  of 
the  Hellenic  intelligence,  the  creation  of  the  beautiful  is 
a  sufficient  aim  for  the  historian,  the  poet,  and  the 
philosopher.  The  man  of  Jerusalem,  on  the  contrary, 
writes  and  speaks  only  with  a  strictly  utilitarian  object. 
Glory,  the  supreme  reward  at  Athens,  is  not  found  at 
Jerusalem.  The  books  of  the  Bible  are  anonymous,  or, 
rather,  pseudonymous.  In  order  to  give  greater  authority 
to  their  words,  the  authors  of  the  prophecies  sacrifice 
their  personality.  They  sign  their  works  with  some 
ancient  name,  and  say  : — 

Thus    spake     Hosea Thus    spake    Amos Thus 

spake  Jeremiah 


HOSEA  AND  AMOS  123 


§  3.  Hosea  mid  Amos. 

After  Alexander,  as  in  the  days  of  the  Persian 
emperors,  the  government  of  Jerusalem  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  leaders  of  the  old  clerical  aristocracy.  But 
the  heads  of  the  old  aristocracy  which  rules  Judaea  under 
the  Macedonian  suzerainty  are  intoxicated  with  the 
charm  and  joy  of  Hellenic  ways ;  these  grandchildren  of 
the  sombre  companions  of  Esdras,  rich,  obeyed,  and 
feared  by  the  people,  have  become  prosperous  and 
luxurious  pachas.  Hellenism,  which  triumphs  with  the 
Macedonian  armies,  triumphs  also  in  the  hearts  of  the 
Jewish  aristocrats,  and  overthrows  traditions  no  less 
than  territories.  At  this  time  Onias  I.  is  high-priest  at 
Jerusalem  ;  in  other  words,  he  is  viceroy  of  Judaea.  As 
powerless  to  resist  the  moral  invasion  of  Hellenism  as 
the  invasion  of  Egyptian  or  Syrian  armies,  he  lets  things 
have  their  way.     The  work  of  the  prophets  begins. 

We  have  already  described  how  certain  men  arose 
amid  the  Jerusalem  democracy  and  the  old  nationalism 
unaffected  by  the  Hellenic  contagion,  to  bring  back  to  a 
respect  for  tradition  an  aristocracy  that  was  won  by  the 
foreign  novelties;  and  how  the  work  of  the  prophetic 
books — first  Hosea  and  Amos,  then  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel, 
Isaiah,  and  their  disciples — was  a  nationalist  and  demo- 
cratic reaction  against  the  hellenisation  of  the  sacerdotal 
caste  which  ruled  the  State. 

Alexander  having  entered  Palestine  in  332,  one  may 
admit,  in  a  general  way,  that  Hellenism  had  begun  to 
penetrate  Juda3a  about  the  year  350,  and  the  year  332 
probably  indicates  the  period  when  the  prophetic  litera- 
ture may  have  begun  at  Jerusalem.  We  must  assign  to 
the  last  third  of  the  fourth  century,  332  to  300,  and  the 
early  years  of  the  third  century,  the  prophetic  books  of 
Hosea  and  Amos,  then  of  Jeremiah  and  his  disciples. 
Ezekiel  follows ;  and  the  Isaiahs  are  still  later. 


124  THE  BIRTH  OF  PROPHETISM 

The  democratic  nationalism,  and  especially  the  anti- 
hellenic,  anti-aristocratic,  and  anti-sacerdotal  spirit  of  the 
prophetic  writers,  localise  them  in  the  period  of  Alexander 
and  his  immediate  successors.  The  historical  atmosphere 
is  none  the  less  significant.  Let  us  recall  the  chief 
political  events  of  this  half-century,  beginning  a  few 
years  before  the  coming  of  Alexander,  say  350  to  300  ; 
we  shall  see  that  no  date  suits  the  older  prophets  better. 
To  understand  them,  it  is  important  to  imagine  oneself 
at  the  close  or  in  the  midst  of  the  circumstances  of  which 
they  speak. 

The  last  years  of  the  Persian  monarchy  had  been 
occupied  in  an  expedition  of  Artaxerxes  Ochus  against 
Egypt  and  Phoenicia.  While  Artaxerxes  Ochus  was 
besieging  Sidon,  the  Jews  had  rebelled ;  but  the  rising 
had  been  suppressed,  Jerusalem  taken  by  the  Persian 
army,  and  a  number  of  Jews  deported  to  Egypt  and 
Hyrcania. 

In  332  Alexander  had  taken  Palestine,  and  placed 
there  a  Macedonian  governor.  Soon  afterwards  he  had 
founded  the  city  of  Alexandria  in  Egypt,  and  some  of  the 
Jews,  taken  forcibly  or  driven  by  misery,  would  settle 
there  later. 

After  the  death  of  Alexander  his  generals  had  divided 
his  empire ;  but  their  ambition  had  drawn  them  into 
endless  wars.  Palestine  was  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
the  object  of  a  struggle  between  the  Macedonian  king  of 
Egypt  and  the  Macedonian  king  of  Syria. 

Palestine  had  been  given  to  the  king  of  Syria.  In  320 
Ptolemy  surprises  and  sacks  Jerusalem,  and  a  certain 
number  of  Jews  are  deported  to  Egypt. 

Antigonus  soon  retakes  Palestine.  Ptolemy  re-enters 
it  in  312 ;  he  is  again  driven  out.  Jerusalem  returns  to 
Syria ;  but  its  walls  have  been  rased. 

Finally,  in  301,  Palestine  is  restored  to  Egypt.  The 
city  of  Antioch  is  founded  in  Syria  at  this  date,  and  is 
partly  peopled  with  Jews, 


HOSEA  AND  AMOS  125 

Incessant  crossings  of  armies  on  the  march,  Judaea  a 
battlefield,  unending  devastation,  Jerusalem  twice  taken 
by  assault  and  sacked,  the  Jews  twice  deported,  the 
country  in  military  occupation,  a  continuous  emigration — 
that  is  the  picture  of  Palestine  between  the  year  350  and 
the  year  301,  as  we  find  it  in  history. 

In  the  heart  of  this  stricken  country  the  rivalry  of 
Jerusalem  and  Samaria  has  increased.  The  latter  takes 
the  side  of  Egypt,  the  other  of  Syria ;  a  little  later, 
Jerusalem  sides  with  Egypt,  Samaria  with  Syria. 
Districts  are  taken  from  Samaria  and  given  to  Judaea ; 
they  are  again  taken  from  Judaea  and  restored  to  Samaria. 
When  Jerusalem  is  in  favour  with  the  conqueror,  it 
demands  the  punishment  of  Samaria ;  Samaria  is  not 
more  generous  when  its  protector  has  triumphed.  Mean- 
time the  ancient  Philistine  and  Edomite  populations  are 
stirred,  and  armed  bands  spread  on  all  sides,  even  as  far 
as  the  walls  of  Jerusalem. 

An  intestine  war  between  Jerusalem  and  Samaria  and 
the  hostility  of  surrounding  peoples — that  is  the  internal 
history  of  Palestine. 

Lastly,  beyond  the  Palestinian  region,  deportation  and 
emigration  have  begun  to  fill  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Phoenicia 
with  Jewish  colonies.  Alexandria,  Antioch,  Damas,  and 
Tyre  are  about  to  experience  the  misery  of  the  ghetto. 
Not  all  the  exiles  are  miserable,  though  the  majority  are ; 
and,  all  round  Palestine,  a  vast  field  of  exile,  in  which 
the  children  of  Israel  weep  for  their  absent  country,  is 
about  to  be  the  horizon  that  will  limit  the  gaze  of  the 
men  of  Jerusalem. 

That  is  the  character  of  the  second  half  of  the  fourth 
century.  This  series  of  events  will  not  be  recalled,  even 
by  way  of  allusion,  in  the  prophetical  books,  because 
their  authors  frame  their  discourses  in  an  earlier  period. 
Some  striking  fact  may,  from  time  to  time,  be  indicated 
in  the  form  of  a  prediction  (for  instance,  the  taking  of 
Tyre  by  Alexander,  he  being  the  only  man  who  could 


126  THE  BIKTH  OF  PEOPHETISM 

take  Tyre) ;  some  slight  allusion  may  be  made  to  some 
great  event  (such  as  the  disgrace  of  an  unpopular 
minister).  But  the  misfortunes  of  this  troubled  period 
will  be  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  characters  of  the 
monodramas  play  their  part. 

In  every  chapter  of  the  prophetic  books  will  be  found 
the  sentiment  of  foreign  invasion,  the  pillage  of  the 
country  by  armies,  the  profanation  of  the  holy  city,  and 
deportation.  Parochial  quarrels  between  Jerusalem  and 
Samaria,  ending  in  virtual  or  open,  but  always  fierce, 
warfare,  will  fill  the  old  prophets.  The  terror  of  Edomite 
invasions  will  hover  above  them,  and  maledictions  will  be 
showered  on  Egypt  and  on  Syria.  They  will  return 
incessantly  to  the  question  of  "  foreign  alliances."  Must 
they  take  the  part  of  Syria  against  Egypt,  of  Egypt 
against  Syria,  or  remain  simply  the  men  of  Jahveh? 
And  they  will  never  forget  their  brothers  in  Egypt  and 
Syria,  their  exiled  brothers,  the  unhappy  victims  of 
deportation  or  emigration,  of  whose  return  they  never 
cease  to  dream. 

Thus  the  historical  world  in  which  the  authors  of  the 
prophetic  books  lived  breaks  through  the  fiction  in  which 
they  enfold  themselves.  Their  object  is  quite  plain  to  us  ; 
in  the  name  of  the  old  Jewish  traditionalism  they  hurl 
threats  against  Jerusalem  for  its  infidelity  to  Jahveh — in 
other  words,  to  its  national  traditions.  Whatever  modifi- 
cations or  interpolations  were  made  in  the  prophetic  books 
down  to  the  time  when  they  became  sacred  and  canonical, 
the  critic  cannot  fail  to  penetrate  their  spirit,  if  he  be  free 
from  theological  prepossessions. 

The  first,  the  author  of  the  prophecies  of  Hosea,  hurls 
his  anathema ;  and,  from  the  first  lines  of  his  fierce 
diatribe,  the  fiction  of  the  poet  clothes  with  the  most 
highly-coloured  allegories  the  maledictions  with  which 
the  old  traditionalism  would  terrify  its  compatriots. 

When  Jahveh  began  to  speak  by  Hosea,  Jahveh  said  to 
Hosea :    Go,  take   unto  thee  a  wife  of  whoredoms  and 


HOSEA  AND  AMOS  127 

children  of  whoredoms ;  for  Israel  hath  committed  great 
whoredom,  departing  from  Jahveh. 

So  he  went  and  took  Gomer  the  daughter  of  Diblaim : 
which  conceived,  and  bare  him  a  son. 

And  Jahveh  said  unto  Hosea,  Call  his  name  Jezreel ; 

for   yet   a  little  while  and  I will  break  the  bow  of 

Israel  in  the  valley  of  Jezreel. 

And  Gomer  conceived  again,  and  bare  a  daughter.  And 
Jahveh  said  unto  Hosea,  Call  her  name  Lo-ruhamah  [that 
is  to  say,  Not-loved] ,  for  I  will  no  more  love  the  house  of 
Israel. 

And  Gomer  weaned  her  daughter ;  and  she  conceived 
and  bare  a  son. 

And  Jahveh  said  unto  Hosea,  Call  his  name  Lo-ammi 
[that  is  to  say,  Not-my-people] ;  for  ye  are  not  my  people, 
and  I  will  not  be  your  god,^ 

The  most  terrible  threats  are  then  unfolded.  In  the 
books  of  the  Bible,  however,  the  threat  is  always  succeeded 
by  a  promise.  Israel  the  sinner  will  be  punished  ;  Israel 
faithful  will  receive  an  infinite  reward. 

And  the  number  of  the  children  of  Israel  shall  be  as 
the  sand  of  the  sea,  which  cannot  be  measured  or 
numbered :  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  in  the  place 
where  it  was  said  unto  them.  Ye  are  not  my  people,  there 
it  shall  be  said  unto  them,  Ye  are  the  sons  of  the  living 
God! 

Then  shall  the  children  of  Judah  and  the  children  of 
Israel  be  gathered  together,  and  appoint  themselves  one 
head,  and  they  shall  come  up  out  of  the  land ;  for  great 
shall  be  the  day  of  Jezreel. 

And  ye  shall  say  unto  your  brethren,  Ammi  [My-people] , 
and  to  your  sisters  Euhamah  [Beloved]  .^ 

And  then  the  exhortation  : — 

Eaise  yourselves,  raise  yourselves  against  your  mother ; 
for  she  is  not  my  wife,  neither  am  I  her  husband !  Let 
her  therefore  put  away  her  whoredoms  out  of  her  sight, 
and  her  adulteries  from  between  her  breasts : 

Lest  I  strip  her  naked,  and  set  her  as  in  the  day  that 
she  was  born,  and  set  her  like  a  dry  land 

For  she  did  not  know  that  I  gave  her  corn,  and  wine, 

1  Hosea  i.  2-9,  ^  j^^^^^  i_  10-11,  ii.  1. 


128  THE  BIRTH  OF  PEOPHETISM 

and  oil,  and  multiplied  her  silver  and  gold,  which  they 
prepared  for  Baal. 

Therefore  will  I  return,  and  take  away  my  corn  in  the 
time  thereof,  and  my  wine  in  the  season  thereof,  and 
will  recover  my  wool  and  my  flax  given  to  cover  her 
nakedness 

I  will  cause  all  her  mirth  to  cease,  her  feast  days,  her 
new  moons,  and  her  sabbaths,  and  all  her  solemn  feasts. 

And  I  will  destroy  her  vines  and  her  fig  trees and  I 

will  make  them  a  forest,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  shall 
eat  them. 

And  I  shall  punish  her  because  of  the  incense  which 
she  burned  to  the  Baals,  because  of  the  earrings  and 
jewels,  and  because  she  hath  forgotten  me,  saith  Jahveh. 

Therefore,  behold,  I  will  allure  her,  and  bring  her  into 
the  wilderness,  and  speak  to  her  heart. 

And  I  will  give  her  vineyards,  and  the  valley  of  Achor 
for  a  door  of  hope  ;  and  she  shall  sing  there,  as  in  the  days 
of  her  youth,  and  as  in  the  day  when  she  came  up  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt. 

And  it  shall  be  at  that  day,  saith  Jahveh,  that  thou 
shalt  call  me.  My  husband ;  and  I  shall  take  from  her 
mouth  the  names  of  the  Baals 

And  I  will  betroth  thee  unto  me  for  ever ^ 

The  prophets  know  nothing  but  threats  and  promises. 
But  it  is  to  the  higher  clergy  of  Jerusalem  that  the 
threats  are  addressed. 

Hear  ye  this,  0  priests :  and  hearken,  ye  house  of 
Israel ;  and  give  ye  ear,  O  house  of  the  king :  for  judg- 
ment is  toward  you.^ 

Hostility  to  the  priests  who  rule  Jerusalem  breaks  out 
in  the  famous  and  little -understood  passage  of  the 
prophecies  of  Hosea  : — 

I  desire  love  ;  that  is  to  say,  love  of  the  god — that  is  to 
say,  patriotism  ;  I  desire  patriotism,  and  not  sacrifices.  I 
desire  respect  for  the  god ;  that  is  to  say,  respect  for  the 
national  institutions,  respect  for  the  traditions ;  I  desire 
respect  for  the  traditions  rather  than  burnt  offerings.'' 

The  invectives  grow,  in  strength  and  number,  against 

'  Hosea  ii.  2-19.  ^  Hosea  v.  1.  ^  Hosea  vi.  6. 


HOSEA  AND  AMOS  129 

the  aristocracy  of  Jerusalem.  Nothing  of  the  kind  had  as 
yet  appeared  in  Jewish  hterature,  neither  in  the  Mosaic 
books,  nor  in  Judges,  nor  in  Kings.  A  new  soul  has 
arisen  among  the  people.  Henceforward,  through  the 
whole  of  Jewish  history,  we  shall  follow  this  antagonism 
between  the  popular  party  and  the  aristocracy.  Its 
appearance  begins  with  the  prophetic  books ;  we  are  in 
the  period  when  Hellenism  enters  Jerusalem. 

Amos,  the  successor  of  Hosea,  enumerates  in  his  turn 
the  crimes  for  which  Jewish  traditionalism  demands 
justice  of  Jahveh. 

Woe  to  them  that  are  at  ease  in  Zion,  and  trust  in  the 
mountain  of  Samaria 

That  lie  upon  beds  of  ivory,  and  stretch  themselves 
upon  their  couches,  and  eat  the  lambs  out  of  the  flock, 
and  the  calves  out  of  the  midst  of  the  stall. 

That  chant  to  the  sound  of  the  viol 

That  drink  wine  in  bowls,  and  anoint  themselves  with 
the  chief  ointments,  and  are  not  grieved  for  the  affliction 
of  Israel. 

Therefore  now  shall  they  go  captive  with  the  first  that 
go  captive,  and  their  cries  of  joy  shall  cease.^ 

The  author  of  the  prophecies  of  Amos  is  not  less 
furious  than  the  author  of  the  prophecies  of  Hosea 
against  the  powerful  and  wealthy — that  is  to  say,  against 
the  priests  who  govern  Jerusalem : — 

I  hate,  I  despise  your  feast  days,  saith  Jahveh,  and  I 
will  not  smell  your  perfumes  in  your  solemn  assemblies. 

Though  ye  offer  me  burnt  offerings,  I  will  not  accept 
them  ;  neither  will  I  regard  the  peace  offerings  of  your 
fat  beasts. 

Take  thou  away  from  me  the  noise  of  thy  songs,  and 
let  me  hear  no  more  the  melody  of  thy  viols.^ 

Men  had  arisen  among  the  people  of  Jerusalem  who 
understood  the  new  danger,  the  great  danger  that 
threatened  the  country.  The  sombre  nationalism  of 
Esdras  and  his  successors  had  concentrated  all  the 
strength  of  the  little  State  round  the  name  of  Jahveh, 

'  Aynos  vi.  1  and  4-7.  '^  Amos  v.  21-23. 

K 


130  THE  BIETH  OF  PROPHETISM 

the  national  god ;  it  had  made  foreign  idolatry  the 
supreme  danger.  Now  Hellenism  was  a  new  danger,  as 
the  leaders  were  forgetting  the  old  Judaic  traditions,  and 
were  turning  to  Hellenic  novelties. 

The  pleasantness  of  the  new  ways,  the  easy  life  and 
festivities,  the  beautifully  decked  women  and  spacious 
houses,  the  wealth  that  affords  luxury,  and  the  luxury 
that  makes  the  soul  soft — all  this  is  called,  in  the  fierce 
language  of  the  prophets,  apostasy,  fornication,  adultery, 
treason,  the  forsaking  of  Jahveh,  the  worship  of  strange 
gods,  the  installation  of  the  abominations  of  anti-national 
cults  at  Jerusalem,  the  revival  of  ancient  idols,  the 
stealing  of  the  heart  of  Israel  from  Jahveh  by  Baal, 
Astarte,  Camos,  and  Milkom. 

In  resuming  the  war  upon  Baal,  Astarte,  Camos,  and 
Milkom  the  prophets  will,  in  the  ancient  fashion  of 
Jewish  literature,  give  their  contemporaries  a  glowing 
lesson  for  the  present  in  the  guise  of  an  ancient  history. 

What  had  the  Jews  of  the  end  of  the  fourth  century 
to  fear  from  Baal,  Astarte,  Camos,  and  Milkom?  Baal 
and  Astarte  now  mean  the  Hellenic  seduction.  Apostasy 
and  treachery  are  forgetfulness  of  the  ancient  Deutero- 
nomic  discipline.  Prostitution  is  the  abandonment  of 
the  old  national  traditions.  Twenty-two  centuries  before 
our  time  we  find  the  men  who  are  indulgent  towards 
foreign  ideas  and  ways  declared  by  their  enemies  to  be 
"  traitors  "  and  "  men  of  no  country."  It  is  an  exaggera- 
tion, assuredly ;  but  this  corrupt  aristocracy  brought 
Judaism  into  danger  of  death.  The  threats,  the  fury — 
nowhere  else  can  one  find  invective  comparable  to  that 
we  shall  presently  meet  in  Jeremiah — the  storms  of  the 
Jewish  democrats  are  intelligible,  if  we  suppose  that  they 
are  denouncing  the  terrible  danger  of  an  aristocracy  that 
is  forgetting  its  traditions,  losing  its  discipline,  and 
denationalising  itself.  In  face  of  this  invading  Hellenism 
the  Jewish  soul  found  itself  at  the  most  formidable  turn 
in  its  history,  and  brought  forth  its  decisive  work. 


Chapter  II. 

JEREMIAH 

The  history  of  Jewish  hterature  is,  as  we  said,  the  history 
of  Judaism  itself.  Having  once  formulated  itself  in  the 
Mosaic  books,  the  vast  movement  of  ideas,  which  Judaism 
was,  became  fixed  in  the  works  of  certain  anonymous 
writers — writers  of  genius — the  authors  of  the  prophecies 
which  bear  the  names  of  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Isaiah. 
To  analyse  these  works,  to  understand  their  object,  to 
penetrate  their  spirit,  and  to  appreciate  their  effect,  is  to 
write  the  history  of  Judaism  from  the  end  of  the  fourth, 
and  during  the  third,  century  before  the  present  era. 

In  order  to  combat  the  Hellenic  idolatry  and  ways,  the 
authors  of  the  prophecies  of  Hosea  and  Amos  had  con- 
ceived the  characters  of  the  prophets  Hosea  and  Amos  as 
men  who  had  lived  in  the  remote  period  of  the  ancient 
kingdoms  of  Ephraim  and  Judah,  two  hundred  years 
before  Nabuchodonosor ;  and  they  had  composed,  and 
put  into  circulation,  certain  great  lyrical  discourses  which 
the  prophets  were  supposed  to  have  pronounced,  and 
which  were  understood  to  have  been  preserved  by  some 
extraordinary  miracle.  Apart,  however,  from  the  indica- 
tion of  the  kings  under  whom  the  alleged  prophets  were 
supposed  to  have  lived,  and  a  few  other  very  general 
indications,  they  had  not  made  known  any  of  the  circum- 
stances in  which  these  discourses  were  said  to  have  been 
pronounced.  The  historical  framework  remained  vague  ; 
clear  enough  in  ideas,  the  discourses  of  the  prophets 
floated  between  heaven  and  earth,  as  far  as  the  facts  were 
concerned.  Were  the  authors  of  the  prophecies  of  Hosea 
and  Amos  ignorant  of  the  details  of  the  events  that  had 
taken  place  in  the  ancient  kingdoms  of   Ephraim  and 

131 


132  JEREMIAH 

Judah,  four  centuries  before  their  time  ?  They  saw  the 
need  only  of  one  thing — the  lesson  that  they  wished  to 
convey  to  their  contemporaries ;  and  they  omitted  to 
surround  their  declamations  with  an  historical  environ- 
ment which  did  not  interest  them.  The  writer  who 
composed  the  chief  prophecies  of  Jeremiah,  like  every 
serious  writer,  at  first  followed  his  masters ;  like  every 
writer  of  genius,  he  then  passed  beyond  them.  It  is 
impossible  to  study  the  whole  book  of  Jeremiah  within 
the  limits  of  the  present  work.  Criticism,  indeed,  now 
shows  that  it  is  the  work  of  several  writers ;  we  shall 
concern  ourselves  preferably  with  the  one  who  created 
the  figure  of  the  terrible  }iabi.  Whether  or  no  a  man  of 
the  name  of  Jeremiah  ever  really  existed  mattered  little ; 
just  as  it  mattered  little  to  the  romances  of  the  Round 
Table  whether  or  no  there  ever  was  a  Merlin  the 
Enchanter.  Whether  he  created  or  developed  his 
character,  the  writer,  like  his  predecessors,  went  back  to 
an  earlier  period  ;  but,  not  going  so  far  into  the  past,  he 
stopped  at  the  period  of  Nabuchodonosor,  and  placed  his 
spokesman  at  that  time ;  and,  instead  of  being  satisfied 
with  such  vague  surroundings  as  those  in  which  the 
prophecies  of  Hosea  and  Amos  are  placed,  he  showed  his 
originality  by  framing  his  discourses  in  the  very  definite 
historical  environment  that  was  wanting  in  the  earlier 
works. 

The  period  he  had  chosen  evidently  suited  him.  The 
period  chosen  by  his  predecessors  was  half  forgotten  by 
the  Jews  of  the  fourth  century  ;  but  they  had  a  vivid 
memory  of  the  last  kings  of  Judah,  the  invasion  of 
Nabuchodonosor,  the  lingering  and  bloody  agony  of 
ancient  Jerusalem,  the  destruction  of  the  city,  and  the 
deportation  to  Babylon.  They  might  be  indifferent  to 
the  remoter  misfortunes  of  Israel ;  it  was  impossible  to 
be  untouched  by  the  catastrophe  that  had  ruined  the 
earlier  Jerusalem  and  given  birth  to  the  actual  city. 
Nabuchodonosor  was  still,  in  the  imagination  of  the  Jews 


JEEEMIAH  133 

of  the  third  century,  the  scourge  of  god  at  whose  recol- 
lection they  shuddered  ;  the  exile  beside  the  rivers  of 
Babylon  was  the  symbol  of  the  exiles  and  emigrations  of 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century  ;  the  burning  of  the  temple 
was  the  supreme  threat  held  over  the  head  of  Jewish 
nationalism.  The  author  of  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah, 
in  going  back  to  this  fatal  period,  could  not  but  revive  its 
episodes.  The  events  amid  which  he  placed  the  words 
he  wished  to  speak  were  well  known.  They  were  im- 
pressed on  every  side,  and  the  romance  inevitably  took 
shape.  Jeremiah  was  not  merely  an  eloquence  that 
thunders,  and  a  lyrism  that  enthuses,  in  the  clouds ;  he 
was  a  soul  that  mingles  with  the  events ;  and  the 
character  of  the  prophet  assumed  a  glowing  and  terrible 
life  amid  the  misfortunes  of  his  country.  The  author  of 
the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  is,  like  the  authors  of  the 
prophecies  of  Amos  and  Hosea,  a  poet  and  an  orator; 
but  he  created  a  literary  form  that  one  may  designate 
the  lyrical  romance,  if  we  regard  its  form,  or  the  political 
romance,  if  we  regard  its  substance.  And  the  romance 
of  Jeremiah  was  so  powerfully  conceived,  and  so 
passionately  lived,  as  to  mislead  posterity  for  ages  into 
seeing  history  in  his  vivid  fancies. 

The  subject  of  the  romance  of  Jeremiah  is  as  follows  : — 
We  are  understood  to  be  at  the  close  of  the  seventh 
century,  at  Jerusalem ;  the  Jewish  people  has  been 
unfaithful  to  Jahveh,  its  national  god ;  a  prophet  named 
Jeremiah  announces,  in  the  course  of  many  adventures, 
that  punishment  is  coming.  Meantime  Nabuchodonosor, 
King  of  Babylon,  approaches  with  his  army  ;  Jeremiah 
recognises  in  him  the  instrument  of  Jahveh,  and  exhorts 
the  Jews  to  make  no  resistance,  to  accept  their  chastise- 
ment ;  when  the  trial  is  over,  he  promises  that  Jahveh 
will  restore  his  people.  In  fact,  Nabuchodonosor  takes 
and  destroys  Jerusalem  ;  but  the  appeased  god  will  raise, 
on  the  ruins  of  the  guilty  and  justly-punished  city,  the 
new  Jerusalem  that  will  never  perish. 


134  JEEEMIAH 

The  words  of  Jeremiah,  the  son  of  Hilkiah,  of  the 
priests  that  were  in  Anathoth  in  the  land  of  Benjamin,  in 
the  days  of  Josias,  king  of  Judah,  and  in  the  days  of 
Joachim,  son  of  Josias,  king  of  Judah,  unto  the  end  of  the 
eleventh  year  of  Zedekiah,  brother  of  Joachim,  king  of 
Judah,  unto  the  carrying  away  of  Jerusalem  captive/ 

Thus  the  book  opens.     Then  follovi^s  the  narrative  of 
the  vocation  of  the  prophet : — 

The  word  of  Jahveh  came  unto  me,  saying  : 

Before  I  formed  thee  in  the  belly  I  knew  thee ;  and 
before  thou  camest  forth  out  of  the  womb  I  sanctified 
thee ;  and  I  ordained  thee  a  prophet  unto  the  nations. 

Then  said  I,  Ah,  Lord  Jahveh,  behold  I  cannot  speak, 
for  I  am  a  child. 

And  Jahveh  said  unto  me,  Say  not,  I  am  a  child ;  for 
thou  shalt  go  to  all  that  I  shall  send  thee,  and  whatsoever 
I  command  thee  thou  shalt  speak. 

Do  not  be  afraid  of  their  faces  ;  for  I  am  with  thee  to 
deliver  thee,  saith  Jahveh. 

Then  Jahveh  put  forth  his  hand,  and  touched  my 
mouth,  and  Jahveh  said  unto  me.  Behold,  I  have  put  my 
words  into  thy  mouth. 

See,  I  have  this  day  set  thee  over  the  nations  and  over 
the  kingdoms,  to  root  out  and  to  pull  down,  and  to  destroy, 
and  to  throw  down,  to  build,  and  to  plant.'' 

The  romancer  imagines  that  the  country  has  reached 
the  last  stage  of  perversity.  Idolatry  reigns  at  Jerusalem ; 
Jahveh  is  forsaken  and  betrayed ;  Jerusalem,  the  spouse 
of  Jahveh,  stains  herself  with  all  the  Baals ;  like  a  prostitute, 
she  has  rejected  her  faith.  Jeremiah  then  rises,  with  threats 
on  his  lips.  Many  times  before  Israel  has  turned  away 
from  its  national  god.  Now  the  chastisement  is  at  the 
gate.  Like  Hosea  and  Amos,  Jeremiah  exhorts  his 
fellow-citizens  in  a  series  of  great  lyric  discourses.  The 
anger  of  Jahveh  is  about  to  break  out ;  if  Israel  return 
not  to  Jahveh,  Israel  will  be  destroyed. 

Jeremiah  is  not  heard  ;  Israel  perseveres  in  its  idolatry  ; 
the  voice  of  Jeremiah  grows  harsher. 

*  Jeremiah  i.  1-3.  ^  Jeremiah  i.  4-10. 


JEREMIAH  135 

And  at  that  time,  saith  Jahveh,  they  shall  bring  out  the 
bones  of  the  kings  of  Judah,  and  the  bones  of  his  princes, 
and  the  bones  of  the  priests,  and  the  bones  of  the  prophets, 
and  the  bones  of  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  out  of  their 
graves ; 

And  they  shall  spread  them  before  the  sun,  and  the 
moon,  and  all  the  host  of  heaven,  whom  they  have  loved, 
and  whom  they  have  served,  and  after  whom  they  have 
walked,  and  whom  they  have  sought,  and  whom  they  have 
worshipped ;  they  shall  not  be  gathered,  nor  be  buried  ; 
they  shall  be  for  dung  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

And  death  shall  be  chosen  rather  than  life  by  all  the 
residue  of  them  that  remain  of  this  evil  family,  which 
remain  in  all  the  places  whither  I  have  driven  them,  saith 
Jahveh  of  the  Hosts.' 

The  threats  increase. 

I  will  appoint  over  ye  four  families,  saith  Jahveh,  the 
sword  to  slay,  and  the  dogs  to  drag,  and  the  fowls  of  the 
heaven  to  tear,  and  the  vermin  of  the  earth  to  devour.^ 

Meantime,  the  symboHc  apologues  appear.  Israel  is  a 
linen  girdle  that  Jeremiah  is  about  to  bury  on  the  banks 
of  the  Euphrates,  and  to  find  rotten,  because  Jahveh  has 
rejected  it.  Then  there  are  the  vessels  full  of  v^ine,  w^hich 
Jahveh  dashes  the  one  against  the  other  :  the  clay  vessel 
vi^hich  Jeremiah  is  going  to  break,  in  the  midst  of  the 
elders  of  the  people  and  the  elders  of  the  priests,  in  the 

valley  of  Ben-Ennom Thus,  saith  Jahveh,  will  I  break 

this  people  and  this  city Gradually  Jeremiah  becomes 

a  living  person,  the  circumstances  are  detailed,  the 
surroundings  are  sketched,  the  romance  unfolds. 

Phassur,  priest  and  overseer  of  the  temple,  hears 
Jeremiah  predict  the  destruction  of  Israel ;  he  takes  him 
to  prison.     On  the  morrow  Jeremiah  says  to  him : — 

"  Jahveh  hath  not  called  thy  name  Phassur,  but  Magor- 
missabib  [or  Fear-on-all-sides]." 

He  renews  his  sinister  predictions,  adding  that  Phassur 
himself  and  all  his  people  will  be  taken  captive. 

In  Phassur  and  Jeremiah,  the  priest  and  the  prophet, 

1  Jeremiah  viii.  1-3.  "^  Jeremiah  xv.  3. 


136  JBKEMIAH 

the  two  parties  face  each  other.  And  presently  the  author 
of  the  book  will  reproach  the  rulers  with  not  doing  justice, 
with  oppressing  the  weak,  with  living  in  luxury.  Woe, 
he  says,  to  those  who  do  injustice !  Woe  also  to  those 
who  build  themselves  vast  houses,  with  spacious  chambers, 
high  windows,  and  cedar  and  vermilion  ceilings.' 

The  romance  continues.  King  Zedekiah  sends  two 
priests  to  Jeremiah  : — 

"  Inquire  of  Jahveh  for  us  ;  for  Nabuchodonosor  king 
of  Babylon  maketh  war  against  us." 

And  Jeremiah  says  to  them  : — 

"  Thus  shall  ye  say  to  Zedekiah :  Thus  saith  Jahveh, 
god  of  Israel :  I  will  smite  the  inhabitants  of  this  city 
with  the  pestilence,  the  sword,  and  the  famine :  I  will 
deliver  Zedekiah."^ 

The  formidable  Nabuchodonosor  draws  near.  Can  the 
humble  kingdom  of  Judah  resist  him  ?  But  the  writer 
does  not  see  in  him  the  enemy  who  is  about  to  destroy 
his  city  and  his  country ;  he  recognises  and  salutes  the 
minister  of  the  judgments  of  Jahveh. 

Behold,  saith  Jahveh,  I  send  against  them  Nabuchodo- 
nosor, king  of  Babylon,  my  servant and  will  utterly 

destroy  them,  and  make  them  a  desolation,  and  an  hissing, 
and  perpetual  solitudes. 

I  will  take  from  them  the  voice  of  mirth,  and  the  voice 
of  gladness,  the  voice  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the  voice  of 
the  bride,  the  sound  of  the  millstones,  and  the  light  of  the 
camp. 

And  this  whole  land  shall  be  a  solitude  and  a  desolation, 
and  this  nation  shall  serve  the  king  of  Babylon  seventy 
years.^ 

At  the  end  of  seventy  years  Jahveh  will  turn  against 
Babylon,  and  will  chastise  it  for  its  pride  in  thinking  that 
its  strength  came  from  itself,  and  not  from  the  anger  of 
Jahveh.  The  anger  of  Jahveh  is  not  a  metaphorical 
expression.     Listen  to  this  manifestation  of  the  god  who 

^  Jeremiah  xxii.  14.        '^  Jeremiah  xxi.  3-7.        '  Jeremiah  xxv.  9-11. 


JEKEMIAH  137 

was   afterwards    to   become   the    Unconditioned    of   the 
philosophers : — 

Jahveh  roars  from  on  high  :  he  roars,  he  roars  upon  his 
habitation :  he  gives  a  shout,  as  they  that  tread  the 
grapes,  against  the  earth 

The  cry  of  terror  of  the  shepherds  and  the  affrighted 
howHng  of  tlie  flociss  are  lieard,  because  Jahveh  doth  spoil 
their  pasture 

He  forsaketh  his  covert,  Hke  a  young  Hon  ;  and  the  land 
becomes  a  desolation/ 

And  what  about  those  whom  the  god  has  struck  ? 

And  the  slain  of  Jahveh  shall  be  from  one  end  of  the 
earth  even  unto  the  other ;  they  shall  not  be  lamented, 
neither  gathered,  nor  buried :  they  shall  be  dung  upon  the 
ground.^ 

Meantime  the  romancer  tells  how  Jeremiah  is  about  to 
take  his  stand  in  the  court  of  the  temple,  and  continues  to 
predict  the  ruin  of  the  country ;  and  the  priests  seize  him, 
saying : — 

"  Thou  shalt  die !  Why  dost  thou  prophesy  against 
the  city?" 

The  people  intervene  : — 

"  This  man  is  not  worthy  to  die ;  for  he  hath  spoken 
to  us  in  the  name  of  Jahveh,  our  god." 

Jeremiah  recommences  as  soon  as  he  is  free.  He 
warns  the  neighbouring  countries,  Edom,  Moab,  Ammon, 
Tyre,  and  Sidon,  that  they  will  be  destroyed  if  they  do 
not  submit  to  Nabuchodonosor.  In  order  to  express  it, 
he  sends  yokes  and  bonds  to  the  kings  of  the  five  peoples. 

And  Jeremiah  himself,  the  writer  continues,  came 
before  the  people  with  a  wooden  yoke  on  his  shoulders. 
But  there  are  those  who  contradict  him.  Hananiah, 
another  prophet,  says  : — 

"  Thus  speaketh  Jahveh,  god  of  Israel,  I  break  the  yoke 
of  the  king  of  Babylon." 

*  Jeremiah  xxv.  30-31  and  36-38.  ^  Jeremiah  xxv.  33. 


138  JEEEMIAH 

Taking  the  yoke  from  the  neck  of  Jeremiah,  Hananiah 
breaks  the  bar  of  it,  saying  : — 

"  Thus  saith  Jahveh :  Even  so  will  I  break  the  yoke  of 
Nabuchodonosor,  king  of  Babylon,  from  the  neck  of  the 
nations." 

Jeremiah  is  silent,  and  goes  his  way.  But  on  the 
morrow  he  comes  again  before  the  people  with  an  iron 
yoke  on  his  neck. 

"  Thus  saith  Jahveh  :  Thou  hast  broken  a  yoke  of 
wood,  but  thou  hast  made  instead  a  yoke  of  iron.  For 
thus  saith  Jahveh,  god  of  Israel :  I  put  a  yoke  of  iron  on 
the  neck  of  the  nations,  that  they  may  serve  Nabuchodo- 
nosor, king  of  Babylon,  and  they  shall  serve  him ;  and  I 
give  him  the  beasts  of  the  field  also." 

Then,  turning  to  Hananiah  : — 

"  This  year  thou  shalt  die,  because  thou  hast  spoken 
against  Jahveh." 

Hananiah,  the  romancer  adds,  died  in  that  year. 

Jeremiah  is  the  prophet  of  death.  This  people,  which 
has  given  itself  to  the  Baals  and  Astartes,  must  be 
destroyed.  The  sentence  is  irrevocable.  And  he  writes 
to  those  who  have  already  been  deported  to  Babylon  that 
they  may  not  hope  to  see  their  country  again. 

No  anarchist  ever  preached  so  violently  the  destruction 
of  the  present  social  order,  that  he  might  build  anew  the 
social  order  of  the  future.  Jeremiah  goes  through  the 
town  crying  that  it  is  useless  to  defend  oneself,  or  to 
struggle,  for  the  city  is  forsaken.  He  summons  Nabu- 
chodonosor with  the  sword,  the  plague,  and  famine. 
Implacably  he  hands  over  to  him  the  race  of  David. 

The  romancer  describes  the  indignation  that  breaks 
out  in  Jerusalem.  The  city  gathers  in  crowds.  Jeremiah 
is  again  put  in  prison.  Meantime  the  army  of  the  king 
of  Babylon  besieges  Jerusalem.  King  Zedekiah  goes  to 
see  the  prophet  in  the  yard  of  the  prison : — 

"  Wherefore  dost  thou  prophesy  the  ruin  of  the  land  ?  " 
he  says  to  him. 


JEKEMIAH  139 

"  This  land  will  be  restored  some  day.  Once  again  its 
people  will  buy  houses,  fields,  and  vines." 

And  Jeremiah,  always  joining  example  with  precept,  at 
once  buys  a  field  at  Anathoth,  his  native  village,  with  all 
the  ceremony  of  a  burgher  who  wishes  to  be  quite  safe 
about  his  investment.  The  prophecies  of  restoration  and 
glory  now  increase.  When  extermination  has  atoned  for 
the  present  crimes,  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  will  be  able 
to  rise  again,  Jahveh  will  bring  back  the  captives  and 
re-establish  them,  and  the  nations  of  the  earth  will  be 
astonished  at  the  good  he  will  do  them. 

Thus  saith  Jahveh  :  Again  there  shall  be  heard  in  this 
place,  which  ye  say  shall  be  desolate,  without  man  and 

without  beast the  voice  of  joy  and  the  voice  of  gladness, 

the  voice  of  the  bridegroom  and  the  voice  of  the  bride,  the 
voice  of  them  that  shall  say,  Praise  Jahveh  of  the  Hosts, 

for  Jahveh  is  good,  for  his  mercy  endureth  for  ever 

For  I  will  cause  to  return  the  captivity  of  the  land,  as  at 
the  first,  saith  Jahveh. 

Thus  saith  Jahveh  of  the  Hosts :  Again  in  this  place 
which  is  desolate,  without  man  and  without  beast,  and  in 
all  the  cities  thereof,  shall  be  an  habitation  of  shepherds 
causing  their  flocks  to  lie  down. 

In  the  cities  of  the  mountains,  in  the  cities  of  the  vale, 
and  in  the  cities  of  the  south,  and  in  the  land  of  Benjamin, 
and  in  the  places  about  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  cities  of 
Judah,  shall  the  flocks  pass  again  under  the  hands  of  him 
that  telleth  them,  saith  Jahveh. 

Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  Jahveh,  that  I  will  perform 
that  good  thing  which  I  have  promised  unto  the  house  of 
Israel  and  to  the  house  of  Judah. 

In  those  days,  and  at  that  time,  shall  I  cause  the  branch 
of  righteousness  to  grow  up  unto  David  ;  and  he  shall 
execute  judgment  and  righteousness  in  the  land. 

In  those  days  shall  Judah  be  saved,  and  Jerusalem  shall 
dwell  safely ;  and  this  is  the  name  wherewith  she  shall  be 
called,  Jahveh-our-Eighteousness. 

For  thus  saith  Jahveh :  David  shall  never  want  a 
successor  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  the  house  of  Israel ; 

Neither  shall  the  priests  and  the  Levites  want  a 
successor  before  me  to  offer  burnt  offerings,  and  to  kindle 
meat  offerings,  and  to  sacrifice  continually.^ 

'  Jeremiah  xxxiii.  10-18. 


140  JEEEMIAH 

But  for  the  moment  Jerusalem  must  be  delivered  into 
the  hands  of  Nabuchodonosor,  and  burned,  and  its  people 
must  go  into  captivity.  While  the  army  of  Nabuchodo- 
nosor presses  the  siege  of  the  city,  Jeremiah  begins  afresh 
his  abominable  imprecations. 

In  this  romance  Jeremiah  plays  a  terrible,  odious,  and 
sublime  part.  Imagine,  says  Renan,  a  Frenchman  within 
the  walls  of  besieged  Paris  during  the  war  of  1870  hailing 
the  minister  of  heaven  in  the  Emperor  William,  applauding 
his  victories,  and  urging  him  to  destroy  Paris  and  France  ! 
It  is  quite  intelligible,  we  reply,  if  the  imprecations  are 
written  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  years 
after  the  events  by  a  polemist  who  is  illustrating  his 
political  theories  with  ancient  examples. 

In  another  place  he  reproaches  the  aristocracy  with 
"loving  strangers.'"  The  charge  is  incomprehensible  if 
it  was  made  in  the  days  of  Josiah  and  Zedekiah,  at  the 
time  when  the  army  of  Nabuchodonosor  threatened  the 
city,  when  Jeremiah  is  the  only  friend  of  the  enemies  of 
his  country ;  it  is  justified  if  we  put  it  at  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  and  if  the  foreigners  loved  by  the  aristo- 
cracy are  Greeks. 

One  day  Jahveh  ordered  the  prophet  to  write  in  a  book 
all  the  words  with  which  he  had  inspired  him.  The 
king  orders  the  book  to  be  seized,  and  has  it  read  to  him 
by  Judi,  his  secretary.  He  was  sitting  in  his  winter 
residence ;  it  was  the  ninth  month ;  a  brazier  burned  in 
front  of  him.  And,  as  Judi  read,  the  king  took  the 
leaves  of  the  roll,  and  cast  them  in  the  fire. 

It  was  useless,  as  Jahveh  at  once  dictated  to  Jeremiah 
a  new  book  similar  to  the  first !  The  orthodox  fancy 
that  posterity  thus  came  to  possess  the  precious  text  of 
the  prophet. 

Meantime  the  romance  is  full  of  adventures.  The 
prophet  finds  it  useful  to  leave  a  city  where  he  feels  no 

'  Jeremiah  ii.  25. 


JEEEMIAH  141 

longer  safe,  but  he  is  stopped  at  the  gate  of  Benjamin  by 
the  officer  of  the  guard,  Irijah,  the  son  of  Shelemiah. 
He  is  brought  before  the  chief  officials,  beaten,  and  put 
in  a  subterraneous  dungeon,  where  he  remains  several 
days.  As  a  special  favour  the  king  orders  that  he  be 
brought  into  the  yard  of  the  prison,  giving  him  every 
day  a  piece  of  bread  out  of  the  bakers'  street. 

Jeremiah  is  inexorable  : — 

"  Thus  saith  Jahveh :  This  city  shall  be  given  into 
the  hand  of  the  king  of  Babylon,  which  shall  destroy  it." 

The  chief  officials  become  impatient : — 

"  Let  this  man  be  put  to  death !  For  thus  he 
weakeneth  the  hands  of  the  men  of  war." 

**  Behold,"  says  the  king,  "  he  is  in  your  hands." 

They  take  Jeremiah,  and  cast  him  into  a  dungeon, 
the  cistern  of  Malchiah,  son  of  Hammelech.  There  was 
no  water,  but  mud  only,  in  the  dungeon,  in  which  they 
placed  him.  Now  this  was  noticed  by  an  Ethiopian 
eunuch,  named  Ebed-melech,  who  was  of  the  king's 
house.  The  king  was  sitting  before  the  gate  of  Benjamin. 
Ebed-melech  went  to  seek  him,  and  said  : — 

"  My  lord  the  king,  these  men  have  cast  Jeremiah  the 
prophet  into  the  dungeon,  to  die  of  hunger." 

And  the  king  charged  Ebed-melech,  the  Ethiopian,  to 
take  thirty  men  and  withdraw  Jeremiah  from  the  dungeon 
before  he  should  die.  Ebed-melech  provided  himself 
with  cords  and  rags  of  torn  stuff,  and,  letting  them  down 
to  Jeremiah,  said  to  him  : — 

"  Take  these  cords ;  put  these  rags  of  torn  stuff  under 
thine  armholes." 

The  holy  prophet  was  saved. 

Meantime  the  siege  goes  on.  Jerusalem  is  in  a 
desperate  condition.  Suddenly,  on  the  ninth  day  of  the 
fourth  month  of  the  eleventh  year  of  Zedekiah,  a  breach 
is  made  in  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  Jerusalem  is  taken 
by  assault.  Nergal-sharezer,  Samgar-nebo,  and  Sarse- 
chim,  the  leaders   of   Nabuchodonosor's  army,  camp  in 


142  JEEEMIAH 

the  ruins  of  the  gates.  The  writer  narrates  the  catas- 
trophe, and  tells  how  the  Babylonian  generals  recognised 
in   Jeremiah   the   prophet  of   the  god  who  had  guided 

them It  is  easy  to  see  how  much  history  there  is  in 

that Speaking  the  language  of  Deuteronomy,  Nebuzar- 

adan,  captain  of  the  guards  of  king  Nabuchodonosor,  says 
to  Jeremiah : — 

"  Jahveh  had  pronounced  this  evil  upon  this  place. 
Now  Jahveh  hath  brought  it,  and  done  according  as  he 
hath  said,  because  ye  have  sinned  against  Jahveh."^ 

The  romance  closes  with  the  adventures  of  the  Jews 
who  remain  in  Judaea,  and  of  those  who  escaped  into 
Egypt.  Jeremiah  is  one  of  the  latter.  In  Egypt  he 
continues  his  sinister  predictions  in  the  shape  of  threats 
and  vociferations  against  the  nations  of  Palestine,  against 
Babylon  itself,  and,  more  than  ever,  against  his  com- 
patriots. 

But  at  the  moment  when  he  relates  the  destruction  of 
the  ancient  land  of  the  Jews,  the  author  of  the  romance 
of  Jeremiah  declares  that  Jahveh,  god  of  the  Jews,  is 
triumphant.  The  ardent  nationalism  which  could  not  be 
established  while  the  nation  was  intact  is  glorified  by  the 
sombre  romancer  amid  the  ruins  and  the  dispersal.  Like 
some  great  fire  that  destroys  the  stubble  and  the  wood, 
but  leaves  unhurt  the  granite  columns,  the  ruin  of 
Jerusalem  has  destroyed  the  lower  elements  in  Israel, 
without  touching  the  incombustible  and  unalterable  work 
that  was  done  by  Jahveh.  The  temple  built  by  Solomon 
to  the  gods  of  Canaan,  to  Moloch,  the  Baals,  and  the 
Astartes,  is  in  flames ;  but  the  melting  down  of  their 
idols  does  but  leave  erect,  in  bronze,  to  stand  for  thousands 
of  years,  the  name  of  Jahveh,  who  alone  is  renovated. 

Jeremiah  has  prophesied  ruin 

I  send  upon  ye,  he  said,  the  sword,  the  famine,  and 
the  pestilence ;  I  will  treat  ye  as  vile  figs  that  cannot  be 

*  Jereviidh  xl,  2-3. 


JEREMIAH  143 

eaten,  they  are  so  evil ;  I  will  deliver  ye  to  be  molested 
by  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  to  be  a  curse,  and  a 
desolation,  and  an  hissing,  and  a  reproach  among  the 
nations  v^hither  I  have  driven  ye  ;  because  ye  have  not 
hearkened  to  my  words,  saith  Jahveh,  which  I  sent  unto 
ye  by  my  servants  the  prophets.' 

But  he  has  also  prophesied  the  restoration  : — 

I  will  bring  again  your  captives ;  I  will  bring  ye  from 
the  nations  whither  I  have  driven  ye,  and  I  will  cause  ye 
to  return  to  the  places  whence  I  have  driven  ye 

The  legend  is  born ;  it  grows  and  spreads  : — 

Fear  thou  not,  Jacob,  my  servant ;  for,  behold,  I  am 
thy  saviour,  and  will  bring  thy  seed  from  the  land  of 
their  captivity. 

And  I  shall  be  with  thee,  to  save  thee,  for  I  shall  then 
make  a  full  end  of  the  nations  whither  I  have  scattered 
thee.  And  thou  shalt  be  my  people,  and  I  will  be 
thy  god. 

The  whirlwind  goeth  forth  with  fury,  the  fierce  anger 
of  Jahveh  shall  not  return,  until  he  hath  performed  the 
intents  of  his  heart 

I  love  thee  with  an  everlasting  love.  I  will  build  thee 
again,  0  virgin  of  Israel.  Thou  shalt  again  be  adorned 
with  thy  tabrets,  and  shalt  dance.  Thou  shalt  again 
plant  vines  upon  the  mountains. 

And  there  shall  be  a  day  that  the  peoples  shall  cry : 
Arise  ye,  and  let  us  go  up  to  Zion,  unto  Jahveh,  our  god. 

For  thus  saith  Jahveh  :  Sing  w4th  gladness  for  Jacob. 
Hear  the  word  of  Jahveh,  O  ye  nations,  and  declare  it  in 
the  isles  afar  off,  and  say.  He  that  scattered  Israel  will 
gather  him Thus  saith  Jahveh,  god  of  Israel.^ 

The  old  idolatrous  people  of  Judah  is  destroyed ;  but 
the  Jewish  people  is  about  to  arise,  and  Jahveh,  after 
dragging  it  through  all  the  ignominy  of  the  dispersal, 
promises  it  a  new  Jerusalem. 

Jewish  history  is,  for  the  book  of  Jeremiah,  merely  an 
illustration  of  a  doctrine.  There  is  need  to  exhort  con- 
temporaries to  be  faithful  to  the  powerful  nationalism 
symbolised    by   the    name    of    Jahveh.     New   gods,    as 

^  Jeremiah  xxix.  17-19.  ^  Jeremiah  xxx.,  xxxi. 


Ui  JEREMIAH 

abominable  as  the  Moloch,  the  Baals,  and  the  Astartes 
of  former  times,  have  appeared ;  they  are  called  Greek 
gods  ;  and  the  forsaking  of  Jahveh  for  Moloch,  Baal,  and 
Astarte  is  only  a  myth  representing  the  Hellenic  apostasy. 
The  Jewish  people  is  warned  by  the  example  of  its 
fathers,  the  fearful  example  of  the  ruin,  and  the  mira- 
culous example  of  the  restoration.  Like  his  predecessors 
and  followers,  the  sombre  author  of  the  prophecies  of 
Jeremiah  gives  a  lesson  for  the  present  in  the  shape  of  a 
history  of  the  past.  But  the  cold  dogmatism  of  the 
earlier  historical  books  has  been  replaced  by  the  impas- 
sioned romance  of  a  man  of  genius  who,  breathing  life 
into  the  dogma,  dramatises  the  implacable  action  of  the 
national  god,  of  whom  he  is  the  spokesman. 

But  we  must  not  forget  that,  for  the  author  of  the 
book  of  Jeremiah,  just  as  for  the  authors  of  the  books  of 
Hosea  and  Amos,  the  criminals  who  are  forgetting  the 
old  traditions  and  turning  to  foreign  cults  are  the  priest- 
aristocrats  who  rule  the  State,  the  privileged  leaders  who 
have  been  seduced  by  the  pleasantness  of  Hellenism. 
The  democratic  character  of  the  prophetic  writers  is 
clearly  shown  in  the  fact  that  the  aristocracy  is  the 
party  of  those  who  favour  the  novelties  they  attack  with 
their  threats,  and  the  democracy  is  the  party  of  the  pure 
who  have  escaped  the  contagion  ;  it  is  seen  just  as  clearly 
in  the  fact  that  the  prophetic  writers  were  men  of  the 
people  rising  in  opposition  to  the  men  of  the  aristocracy. 
But  there  was  at  the  same  time  a  profound  necessity  for 
this,  though  it  was  an  outcome  of  the  circumstances. 
On  three  counts  the  aristocracy  had  to  be  denounced  by 
the  prophets ;  first  because,  about  the  year  332,  it  was 
identifying  itself  with  the  anti-traditionalist  party, 
secondly  because  the  prophets  did  not  arise  within  its 
ranks,  and  thirdly  because  democracy  was  a  logical 
outcome  of  the  evolution  of  Judaism. 

There  was  no  democracy,  in  the  modern  sense  of 
the  word,  in   Greece ;    there  was    none  at  Rome.     The 


JEEEMIAH  145 

democracies  of  Greece  and  Komc  are  privileged  classes 
below  which  swarms  the  vast  crowd  of  all  who  are  not 
citizens.     Democracy  was  born  at  Jerusalem. 

The  terrible  fierceness  of  the  Jewish  soul  could  not 
indeed  fail  to  see  the  conclusion  of  its  premises. 
Foreigners  are  enemies  ;  in  face  of  them  the  Jews  are 
united  in  struggle  and  hatred.  A  similar  hostility,  a 
hatred  common  to  a  whole  people,  creates  in  that  people 
a  bond  of  love  like  the  savage  and  fanatical  bond  that 
held  the  Jews  together.  Implacable  enemies  of  other 
peoples,  they  had  to  be  themselves  indissolubly  united. 
All  were  sons  of  Jahveh,  and  so  all  were  brothers,  and 
all  must  be  equal  before  Jahveh.  When  a  glowing 
patriotism  centres  about  a  military  leader,  a  king,  or  a 
dynasty,  the  State  falls  into  a  hierarchy  below  this 
supreme  head,  and  inspires  in  all  its  subjects  a  duty  of 
love  of  the  master.  But  in  a  theocracy,  when  the  name 
which  expresses  the  nationalism  of  a  people  is  that  of  its 
god,  there  is  an  inevitable  implication  of  democratic 
equality.  Below  the  national  god  there  must  be  leaders 
to  rule ;  as  long  as  these  rulers  are  faithful  to  their 
duties,  the  ruled  may  accept  them.  But  no  fault  will  be 
forgiven  to  this  aristocracy;  the  moment  it  fails,  its 
subjects  will  remember  their  rights.  Sooner  or  later  it 
is  doomed  to  perish. 

A  hierarchic  society  admits,  not  indeed  the  oppression 
of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  but  the  supremacy  of  the 
strong.  A  few  must  be  above,  and  the  many  must  be 
below ;  inequality  of  duties  implies  inequality  of  rights. 
In  a  theocracy  the  god  alone  is  master.  There  is  an 
unrestricted  demand  for  equality.  It  seems  intolerable 
enough  that  some  shall  be  feeble  and  others  strong ;  but 
the  feeble,  at  least,  will  not  suffer  even  the  appearance  of 
oppression.  Hence  we  get  what  has  been  called  the 
victory  of  Judaism ;  the  orphan,  the  widow,  and  the 
wage-earner  will  be  infinitely  protected.  But  let  us  not 
be  too  sentimental  about  it ;  the  orphan,  the  widow,  and 

L 


146  JEEEMIAH 

the  wage-earner  were  not  less  protected  in  pagan  Eome 
than  in  Jerusalem.  Let  us  have  the  courage  to  recognise 
more  nobleness  in  the  strong  man  who  gives  than  in  the 
weak  who  asks.  It  is  noble  in  the  strong  to  protect  the 
weak ;  but  when  the  weak  himself  claims  to  be  protected, 
the  claim  is  just,  but  has  no  title  to  our  admiration.  Let 
us  reserve  our  admiration  for  a  Marcus  Aurelius,  master 
of  the  world,  who  practises  lofty  virtues  ;  and  when  we 
see  the  ghetto  stir  itself  and  murmur  against  the 
oppressor,  let  us  grant  these  people  the  satisfaction  that 
we  may  owe  them,  and  pass  on. 

In  earlier  days  the  Mosaic  books,  and  the  books  of 
Judges,  Samuel,  and  Kings,  had  threatened  with  a  divine 
punishment  the  crime  of  idolatry — that  is  to  say,  the 
abandonment  of  the  national  traditions.  The  prophetic 
books  threaten  with  divine  punishment,  first  the  crime 
of  idolatry,  then  the  crime  which  they  call  injustice,  and 
which  is  the  oppression  of  the  people  by  its  aristocracy. 
This  novelty  should  suffice  to  show  commentators  that 
the  prophetic  books  are  later  than  the  Mosaic  books. 
From  the  time  of  Hosea  and  Amos,  especially  from  the 
time  of  Jeremiah,  Judaism,  which  has  been  a  national 
fact,  becomes  at  the  same  time  a  democratic  fact.  By 
the  example  of  a  past,  which  he  dramatises,  the  author 
of  the  romance  of  Jeremiah  pursues  a  twofold  aim ;  he 
professes  to  restore  the  nationalism  of  the  Jews,  but  he 
wants  to  found  the  democracy  of  the  Jews.  Judaism 
was  destined  to  be  the  party  of  the  lowly ;  a  day  was  to 
come  when  the  Jewish  aristocracy,  almost  entirely 
Hellenistic,  would  be  excluded  from  Judaism.  The 
author  of  the  book  of  Jeremiah,  following  the  authors 
of  the  books  of  Hosea  and  Amos,  brings  under  a  common 
anathema  those  who  seemed  to  favour  the  Hellenic 
idolatry  and  reject  the  cult  of  the  national  god,  and  those 
who  enriched  themselves,  gave  themselves  to  luxury, 
,  oppressed  the  people,  and  refused  justice  to  the  weak. 

I  will  get  me  unto  the  great  men,  and  will  speak  unto 


JEKEMIAH  147 

them ;  for  they  have  known  the  way  of  Jahveh,  and  the 
judgment  of  their  god ;  but  these  have  altogether  broken 
the  yoke,  and  burst  the  bonds. 

Thy  children   have   forsaken    me,   and    swear   by 

gods  that  are  no  gods.  They  commit  adultery,  and 
assemble  themselves  by  troops  in  the  harlot's  house. 
They  are  well-fed  horses ;  they  run  here  and  there,  and 
every  one  neighs  after  his  neighbour's  wife.^ 

As  a  cage  is  full  of  birds,  so  are  their  houses  full  of 
deceit ;  therefore  they  are  become  great,  and  waxen  rich. 

They  are  waxen  fat,  they  shine ;  they  judge  not  the 
cause  of  the  fatherless ;  they  prosper ;  the  right  of  the 
needy  do  they  not  judge.^ 

Here  is  the  most  characteristic  speech  of  the  anti- 
sacerdotal  tribune  : — 

Thus  saith  Jahveh  of  the  Hosts,  god  of  Israel :   Put 

your  burnt  offerings  unto  your  sacrifices I  spake  not 

unto  your  fathers,  nor  commanded  them,  in  the  day  that 
I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  concerning 
burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices.^ 

Here  the  prophet  is  actually  declaring  that  Jahveh  gave 
Moses  no  laws  concerning  sacrifices  and  holocausts  !  Is 
he  referring  to  the  ritual  prescriptions  of  Deuteronomy  ? 
No,  for  Jeremiah  is  in  his  whole  book  faithful  both  to  the 
spirit  and  the  letter  of  Deuteronomy.  He  is  referring  to 
the  new  ritual  laws  which  the  priests  were  then  promul- 
gating in  the  Sacerdotal  Code,  the  appearance  of  which 
we  may  fix  by  the  opposition  of  Jeremiah. 

What  does  the  old  democrat  demand  in  place  of  these 
ritual  laws  which  the  aristocracy  is  multiplying  about  the 
cult? 

This  thing  commanded  I  them,  saying,  Obey  my  voice, 
and  I  will  be  your  god,  and  ye  shall  be  my  people ;  and 
walk  ye  in  the  way  that  I  have  commanded  yoU;  that  it 
may  be  well  unto  you.^ 

Jeremiah  is  faithful  to  Deuteronomy  and  Esdras ;  he  is 
faithful  to  the  formula  of  Hosea  : — 

"  I  desire  love ;  that  is  to  say,  love  of  the  god — that  is 

*  Jeremiah  v.  5-8.  ^  Jereviiah  v.  27-28. 

•^  Jeremiah  vii.  21-22.  *  Jeremiah  \n.  23. 


148  JEEEMIAH 

to  say,  patriotism  ;  I  desire  patriotism,  and  not  sacrifices. 
I  desire  respect  for  the  god ;  that  is  to  say,  respect  for  the 
national  institutions,  respect  for  the  traditions  ;  I  desire 
respect  for  the  traditions  rather  than  burnt  offerings."  ^ 

In  the  book  of  Jeremiah  the  Jewish  soul  had  found 
expression.  Just  as  violent,  Deuteronomy  had  formerly 
continued  the  work  of  the  first  Mosaic  legislators ;  the 
new  work,  outlined  in  the  books  of  Hosea  and  Amos, 
was  now  continued.  In  face  of  a  decadent  aristocracy, 
denationalised  by  Hellenism,  the  rigorist  party,  at  once 
traditionalist  and  democratic,  was  taking  over  the 
inheritance  of  Judaism.  The  book  of  Jeremiah  was 
born  of  it,  and  constituted  it. 


1  Sec  above,  p.  128. 


Chaptee  III. 
EZEKIEL 

§  1.  The  First  Book  of  EzeJciel. 

Beside  the  writers  of  genius  who  imagined  Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel,  and  Isaiah,  Jewish  history  shows  us,  as  disciples 
repeating  the  lessons  of  the  masters,  the  "  minor  prophets  " 
of  Judaism — Michah,  Zephaniah,  Habakkuk,  Joel,  etc. 
We  will  consider  only  the  original  works,  and  will  now 
deal  with  the  strange  and  poignant  romance  entitled  the 
prophecy  of  Ezekiel. 

In  the  days  when  this  work  was  written  Judeea  was  in 
turn  the  prey  of  the  Seleucids  of  Syria  and  the  Ptolemies 
of  Egypt ;  but  the  second  of  the  great  prophetic  writers 
refuses,  like  the  other  Jewish  writers,  to  speak  in  the 
present,  and  seeks  in  the  past  the  hero  and  the  framework 
of  his  romance.  He  chooses  the  same  period  as  the 
author  of  the  romance  of  Jeremiah.  While,  however, 
the  latter  had  placed  the  action  in  Jerusalem,  the  author 
of  the  romance  of  Ezekiel  places  it  in  Babylonia. 

As  we  know,  in  599,  eleven  years  before  he  destroyed 
Jerusalem  and  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  Nabuchodonosor 
had  taken  Jerusalem  for  the  first  time,  but  was  content 
to  impose  severe  conditions  on  it  and  to  deport  some 
thousands  of  its  inhabitants  to  Babylonia.  The  romance 
of  Ezekiel  opens  near  the  river  Chobar,  not  far  from 
Babylon,  in  the  midst  of  these  first  victims  of  deportation. 
The  eleven  years  will  soon  be  over ;  in  Palestine  the  king 
of  Judah  has  sought  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  Nabuchodo- 
nosor ;  the  latter  has  returned  with  his  formidable  army ; 
Jerusalem  is  besieged ;  the  day  of  its  capture  and 
destruction  is  at  hand. 

Meantime    the    deported     Israelites    drag    out    their 

149 


150  EZEKIEL 

miserable  lives  in  the  land  of  exile,  bemoaning  their 
country  and  questioning  in  their  hearts  the  god  who  has 
smitten  them.  Among  them  is  a  prophet,  Ezekiel,  son 
of  Buzi,  priest  of  Jahveh.  And  suddenly,  on  the  fifth 
day  of  the  fourth  month,  the  hand  of  Jahveh  is  on  him. 

I  looked,  and,  behold,  a  whirlwind  came  out  of  the 
north,  a  great  cloud  and  a  fire  intermingled,  and  a 
brightness  was  about  it ;  and  out  of  the  midst  of  the 
fire  came  the  likeness  of  glowing  brass. 

And  out  of  the  midst  thereof  appeared  four  animals. 
And  this  was  their  appearance :  they  had  the  likeness  of 
a  man. 

And  every  one  had  four  faces,  and  every  one  had  four 
wings. 

And  their  feet  were  straight ;  and  the  sole  of  their  feet 
was  like  the  sole  of  a  calf's  foot,  and  they  sparkled  like 
burnished  brass. 

And  they  had  the  hands  of  a  man  under  their  wings  on 
their  four  sides  ;  and  they  four  had  their  faces  and  their 
wings. 

Their  wings  were  joined  one  to  another ;  they  turned 
not  when  they  went ;  they  went  every  one  straight 
forward. 

As  for  the  likeness  of  their  faces,  they  four  had  the  face 
of  a  man,  and  the  face  of  a  lion,  on  the  right  side ;  and 
they  four  had  the  face  of  an  ox  on  the  left  side ;  they  four 
also  had  the  face  of  an  eagle. 

Thus  were  their  faces ;  and  their  wings  were  stretched 
upward ;  two  wings  of  every  one  were  joined  to  those  of 
another,  and  two  covered  their  bodies. 

And  they  went  every  one  straight  forward  ;  whither  the 
spirit  was  to  go,  they  went ;  and  they  turned  not  when 
they  went. 

As  for  the  likeness  of  these  animals,  their  appearance 
was  like  coals  of  fire,  burning  like  torches ;  and  this  fire 
went  up  and  down  among  the  animals  ;  it  gave  forth  a 
bright  light,  and  out  of  it  went  forth  lightning. 

And  the  animals  ran  and  returned,  as  the  appearance 
of  a  flash  of  lightning 

Above  the  heads  of  the  animals  there  was,  as  it  were,  a 
firmament  of  terrible  crystals,  stretched  forth  over  their 
heads  above. 

And  under  the  firmament  were  their  wings  straight,  the 
one  toward  the  other 


THE  FIEST  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  15l 

And  I  heard  the  noise  of  their  wings,  when  they  went, 
like  the  noise  of  great  waters,  as  the  voice  of  the  Almighty, 
a  noise  of  great  tumult  as  the  noise  of  a  camp. 

When  they  stood,  they  let  down  their  wings  ;  and  there 
was  a  voice  from  the  firmament  that  was  above  their 
heads,  when  they  stood,  and  let  down  their  wings. 

And  above  the  firmament  that  was  above  their  heads 
there  was  the  likeness  of  a  sappl^iire  stone,  in  the  form  of 
a  throne  ;  and  upon  tlie  likeness  of  tlie  throne  appeared 
the  likeness  of  a  man  sitting  on  it,  above. 

And  I  saw  as  the  appearance  of  glowing  brass,  as  the 
appearance  of  fire,  round  about,  serving  as  his  home,  from 
his  loins  upward,  and  from  his  loins  downward  ;  I  saw,  as 
it  were,  the  appearance  of  fire  with,  all  around,  a  bright 
light.' 

It  is  Jahveh  himself,  mounted  on  his  chariot  of 
Kerubim.  At  a  later  date  the  Christian  Chm'ch  will,  for 
the  men  of  the  West  reared  in  the  Hellenic  tradition, 
turn  these  terrible  Kerubim  into  our  charming  cherubs, 
chubby  and  curly-haired,  with  pretty  white  wings.  But 
the  Kerubim,  offspring  of  Babylon,  brought  to  Jerusalem 
with  the  traditions  of  ancient  Chaldsea,  were  monsters 
with  the  heads  of  animals,  the  bodies  of  bulls,  two  pairs 
of  wings,  spitting  fire,  as  we  see  them  in  the  Babylonian 
ruins.  Henceforward  the  Kerubim  will  play  their  part 
in  the  manifestations  of  Jahveh. 

Jahveh  speaks  to  Ezekiel : — 

"  Son  of  man,  I  send  thee  to  the  children  of  Israel,  to 
these  nations  that  have  rebelled  against  me ;  they  and 
their  fathers  have  rebelled  against  me,  even  unto  this  day. 
I  do  send  thee  unto  these  impudent  and  stiff-hearted 
children,  and  thou  shalt  say  unto  them  :  Thus  saith  the 
lord  Jahveh."^ 

Ezekiel  rises  ;  he  takes  a  brick,  and  on  it  he  represents 
Jerusalem  besieged,  and,  round  about  it,  the  trenches, 
terraces,  and  camps,  and  the  rams  round  the  walls ;  and 
he  takes  an  iron  stove,  and  puts  it,  like  an  iron  wall, 
between  him  and  the  city  ;  for  at  this  moment,  says  the 

^  Ezekiel  i.  Ezekiel  ii.  3-4. 


152  EiiEKIEL 

writer,  Jerusalem  is  besieged  by  Nabuchodonosor.  Then 
he  Hes  down  on  the  left  side,  and  remains  lying  for  three 
hundred  and  ninety  days,  bearing  the  iniquity  of  Ephraim. 
Then  he  turns  to  the  right  side,  and  remains  lying  thus 
for  forty  days,  bearing  the  iniquity  of  Judah.  With  corn, 
barley,  beans,  and  lentils  he  has  prepared  as  many  loaves 
as  he  must  remain  days  lying  down,  and  has  had  them 
baked  in  dung.  So  will  the  children  of  Israel  eat  a  defiled 
bread.  As  a  favour,  Ezekiel  obtains  permission  of  his 
god  to  bake  his  bread  in  cow's  dung  instead  of  in  human 
excrements.  And  he  prophesies  against  the  guilty 
city. 

We  are  now  in  the  temple  of  Jahveh,  dishonoured  by 
all  kinds  of  idolatries  and  prostitutions.  Opposite  the 
holy  of  holies  is  the  idol  of  jealousy ;  here  are  all  sorts  of 
reptiles  and  abominable  beasts,  worshipped  by  seventy 
sheiks,  with  censers  in  their  hands ;  there  are  women 
sitting  and  weeping  over  Adonis ;  there,  again,  are  twenty- 
five  young  men  throwing  kisses  to  the  sun Does  that 

not  cry  for  vengeance  ? 

Meantime  the  Kerubim  unfold  their  wings,  and  bear 
the  prophet  from  chapter  to  chapter. 

Now  the  hero  prepares  his  travelling  garments,  and  in 
the  evening,  in  the  midst  of  his  silent  compatriots,  he 
sets  out  as  exiles  do.  He  has  not  gone  out  of  his  house 
by  the  door ;  he  has,  with  his  own  hand,  made  a  breach 
in  the  wall.  Under  the  eyes  of  his  compatriots  he  places 
on  his  shoulder  the  mantle  of  a  traveller,  and  departs, 
covering  his  face,  so  that  it  shall  be  a  sign  to  the  house 
of  Israel.     And  he  says : — 

I  am  your  sign ;  like  as  I  have  done  ye  shall  do.  Ye 
shall  go  into  captivity. 

Your  princes,  in  the  midst  of  you,  shall  put  their 
mantles  on  their  shoulders,  and  shall  go  forth  in  the 
twilight ;  the  wall  will  be  dug  through  to  let  them  pass 
out ;  they  shall  cover  their  faces,  that  they  see  not  the 
ground.' 

1  Ezeliel  xii.  11-12. 


THE  FIRST  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  153 

Later  the  lord  addresses  the  guilty  spouse,  her  whom 
he  has  distinguished  and  clothed  and  adorned,  and  who 
has  prostituted  herself  to  strangers. 

In  another  place  there  are  two  women,  Aholah  and 
Aholibah — that  is  to  say,  Samaria  and  Jerusalem — whom 
the  master  had  chosen.  Both  have  been  unfaithful ;  they 
have  suffered  their  bosoms  to  be  touched ;  they  have 
uncovered  their  bellies ;  they  have  called  those  who 
passed  by  to  their  beds.  Loaded  with  ornaments,  their 
eyes  painted,  sitting  on  magnificent  beds,  with  bracelets  on 
their  arms  and  crowns  on  their  heads,  near  a  table  covered 
with  incense  and  oil,  they  have,  with  gesture  and  voice, 
called  upon  the  blue-cloaked  Assyrians,  the  pachas  and 
young  horsemen  of  Assyria,  the  red-robed  Chaldseans, 
with  mitres  of  flowing  colours.  They  have  smiled  when 
the  Egyptians  have  stroked  their  breasts  in  memory  of 
their  virginity.  But  they  will  be  despoiled  of  their 
ornaments,  they  will  have  their  bosoms  torn,  they  will  be 
left  naked  on  the  ground,  the  nose  and  ears  cut  off. 

Meantime  the  threats  are  carried  out.  One  day  a 
fugitive  comes,  who  has  escaped  from  Jerusalem,  and  he 
says : — 

"  The  city  has  been  taken." 

Then  Jahveh  speaks  to  Ezekiel : — 

O  thou,  son  of  man,  prophesy  unto  the  mountains  of 
Israel,  and  say :  Ye  mountains  of  Israel,  hear  the  word 
of  Jahveh 

Because  they  have  made  you  desolate,  and  swallowed 
you  up  on  every  side,  and  ye  became  a  prey  among  the 
nations ; 

Thus  saith  the  lord  Jahveh  to  the  mountains  and  to 
the  hills,  to  the  rivex's  and  to  the  valleys,  to  the  desolate 
ruins  and  to  the  cities  that  are  forsaken,  which  became  a 
prey  and  a  derision  ; 

Thus  saith  the  lord  Jahveh  :  I  will  speak,  in  the  fire  of 
my  jealousy,  against  the  residue  of  the  nations,  which 
have  appointed  my  land  into  their  possession,  to  cast  it 
out  for  a  prey. 

Thus  saith  the  lord  Jahveh :  I  lift  up  my  hand ;  the 
nations  that  are  about  you,  they  shall  bear  their  shame. 


154  EZEKIIiL 

But  ye,  0  mountains  of  Israel,  ye  shall  shoot  forth 
your  branches,  and  yield  your  fruit  to  my  people. 

For,  behold,  I  will  turn  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  be 
tilled  and  sown ; 

And  I  will  multiply  upon  you  man  and  beast ;  and 
they  shall  increase  and  bring  fruit ;  and  I  will  do  better 
unto  you  than  at  your  beginnings,  and  ye  shall  know  that 
I  am  Jahveh.^ 

Ezekiel  is  borne  through  space.  He  walks  in  the 
midst  of  a  valley,  which  is  full  of  bones,  numbers  of 
bones,  very  dry  bones. 

And  Jahveh  saith  :  Prophesy  unto  these  bones,  and 
say  unto  them,  0  ye  dry  bones,  hear  tlie  word  of  Jahveh. 

Thus  saith  the  lord  Jahveh  unto  these  bones :  Behold, 
I  will  cause  spirit  to  enter  into  you,  and  ye  shall  live. 

And  I  will  lay  sinews  upon  you,  and  bring  up  flesh 
upon  you,  and  cover  you  with  skin,  and  put  spirit  in  you, 
and  ye  shall  live ;  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  Jahveh. 

So  I  prophesied  as  I  was  commanded ;  and  as  I 
prophesied,  there  was  a  noise,  and  behold  a  shaking,  and 
the  bones  came  together,  bone  to  his  bone. 

And  when  I  beheld,  lo,  the  sinews  were  on  them,  and 
the  flesh  grew,  and  the  skin  covered  them  ;  but  thei'e  was 
no  spirit  in  them. 

And  he  said  unto  me,  Prophesy  unto  the  spirit, 
prophesy,  son  of  man,  and  say  to  the  spirit :  Thus  saith 
the  lord  Jahveh  :  Come  from  the  four  winds,  0  spirit, 
and  breathe  upon  these  slain  that  they  may  live. 

So  I  prophesied  as  he  commanded  me,  and  the  spirit 
came  into  them,  and  they  lived,  and  stood  up  upon  their 
feet,  an  exceeding  great  army. 

Then  he  said  unto  me.  Son  of  man,  these  bones  are 
the  whole  house  of  Israel ;  behold,  they  say,  Our  bones 
are  dried  ;  our  hope  is  lost ;  we  are  undone. 

Therefore  prophesy,  and  say  unto  them.  Thus  saith 
the  lord  Jahveh  :  Behold,  I  open  your  graves,  and  cause 
you  to  come  up  out  of  ^i  our  graves,  O  my  people,  and 
bring  you  into  the  land  of  Israel. 

And  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  Jahveh,  when  I  have 
opened  your  graves,  and  brought  you  up  out  of  your 
graves,  O  my  people. 

And  I  shall  put  my  spirit  in  you,  and  ye  shall  live ; 

^  Ezekiel  xxxvi.  1-11. 


IBE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  155 

and  I  shall  place  you  in  your  own  land,  and  ye  shall 
know  that  it  is  I,  Jahveh,  who  hath  spoken  it  and 
performed  it,  saith  Jahveh.^ 

The  earlier  prophets  promised  Israel  a  happy  future ; 
they  said  that  Jahveh  himself  would  accomplish  the  work 
of  liberation.  Ezekiel  announces  that  the  day  of  Jahveh 
will  come  only  after  frightful  catastrophes,  in  the  midst 
of  the  direst  anguish.  The  Jewish  people  must  not  hope 
to  enter  peacefully,  under  a  serene  sky,  into  its  era  of 
happiness.  To  fulfil  the  promise  there  must  first  be 
frightful  days  ;  no  doubt  in  order  that  Israel  may  atone 
for  its  former  crimes,  but  also  in  order  that  it  may  the 
better  realise  the  price  of  the  favours  which  Jahveh 
reserves  for  it. 

And  in  the  depths  of  the  north,  among  horsemen  with 
helmet  and  shield,  all  terribly  clothed,  all  wielding  the 
sword,  a  multitude  gathered  to  make  plunder,  to  ruin  the 
nations  and  destroy  the  flocks,  he  evokes  Gog,  king  of 
Magog,  prince  of  Eosch,  Meshech,  and  Tubal. 

Then,  when  the  desolation  is  at  its  height,  Jahveh 
will  manifest  himself  in  an  upheaval  of  the  mountains,  a 
fall  of  the  rocks,  a  rending  of  the  walls,  with  pestilence 
and  blood,  and  a  rain  of  fire  and  sulphur  and  stones 
falling  like  hail ;  he  will  appear  on  his  chariot  drawn  by 
the  four  Kerubim  ;  he  will  see  that  he  is  recognised  by 
the  nations  ;  and  they  will  know  that  it  is  Jahveh. 


§  2.  The  Second  Boole  of  Ezekiel :  the  Legends  of  Samuel, 
Elijah,  and  Elisha. 

Success  and  Check  of  the  Prophetic  Party. 

Our  Bibles  do  not  distinguish  the  two  books  of 
Ezekiel ;  but  the  testimony  of  the  Jewish  historian 
Flavins  Josephus  shows^  that  the  two  parts,  so  different 
from  each  other,  of  the  narrative  of  Ezekiel  (chs.  i.-xxxix. 

^  Ezekiel  xxxvii.  ^  Jewish  Antiquities,  x.  6. 


156  EZEKIEL 

and  chs.  xl.-xlviii.)  were  originally  separate.  The  second 
book  of  Ezekiel  is  a  piece  of  tentative  legislation  which 
the  prophetic  party  opposed  to  the  Mosaic  legislation. 

About  the  same  time  certain  writers  of  the  same 
group  created  or  developed  the  legends  of  Samuel,  Elijah, 
and  Elisha,  which  were  afterwards  incorporated  in  the 
books  of  Samuel  and  Kings.  Samuel  was  a  character  of 
the  older  historical  books  ;  Elijah  and  Elisha  seem,  on 
the  contrary,  to  have  been  almost  invented  by  the 
prophetic  school,  and  their  adventures  wholly  fictitious. 
The  legends  of  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha  were  put 
forward  by  the  prophetic  party  in  opposition  to  the 
Mosaic  legends,  just  as  the  legislation  of  Ezekiel  was  in 
opposition  to  the  Mosaic  legislation. 

The  prophetic  movement  had  issued  from  the  terrible 
upheavals  which  preceded  and  followed  the  arrival  of 
Alexander  the  Great  in  332.  After  the  battle  of  Ipsus, 
the  successors  of  Alexander  having  definitively  divided 
his  empire  between  them,  an  era  of  less  frightful  trouble, 
if  not  an  entirely  peaceful  era,  had  set  in.  This  period 
of  semi-tranquillity  corresponds,  in  Jewish  history,  to 
the  pontificate  of  Simeon  I.,  called  Simeon  the  Just, 
probably  300-270.  Ptolemy  is  king  of  Egypt ;  Seleucus 
king  of  Syria.  The  wars  between  Egypt  and  Syria  are 
over  for  a  time.  Jerusalem  is  still  subject,  but  there  is 
an  end  of  the  passing  of  armies,  the  battles,  the  taking 
by  storm,  the  massacres,  and  the  deportations. 

We  must  not,  however,  take  literally  the  statements  of 
the  Siracid  and  of  the  Talmud  about  the  happiness  of 
Judoea  under  Simeon  the  Just.  It  was  a  comparative 
happiness,  in  view  of  the  frightful  calamities  of  the 
preceding  and  following  periods.  Let  us  conceive  the 
pontificate  of  Simeon  the  Just  as  a  calm  amid  the  storms 
which  laid  Judaea  desolate  from  the  year  350  to  the 
Christian  era ;  and  let  us  understand  that  not  one  of  the 
causes  of  the  misery  and  ignominy  that  beset  the 
unhappy  country  had  been  removed.     Yet  these  years  of 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OP  EZEKIEL  157 

calm  enabled  the  sacerdotal  aristocracy,  on  the  one  hand, 
to  complete  the  work  of  the  Mosaic  legislation,^  and  the 
prophetic  party,  on  the  other  hand,  to  make  its  first 
effort  to  seize  the  government. 

The  books  of  Amos,  Hosea,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  the 
minor  prophets  had  been  very  successful  with  the  popula- 
tion of  Jerusalem.  They  had  succeeded  in  every  case  in 
preventing  the  Hellenisation  of  Judoea.  The  prophetic 
writers  had  proved  that  to  Hellenise  Judaea  would  be 
to  denationalise  it ;  they  had  convicted  the  Hellenising 
priests,  before  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion,  of  forfeiture  ; 
they  had  restored  the  ancient  traditions  to  honour. 
Moreover,  though  Hellenism  had  made  terrible  inroads 
into  the  nobility  of  Jerusalem  for  a  third  of  a  century,  it 
could  not  have  absorbed  it ;  though  a  large  number  of 
these  priest-levites,  to  whom  had  fallen  all  the  power  and 
all  the  wealth  of  Jerusalem,  had  abandoned  themselves  to 
the  charm  of  Hellenic  novelties,  others  must  assuredly 
have  protested,  in  conjunction  with  the  democrats,  against 
the  forsaking  of  ancient  customs.  The  latter  could  only 
reproach  an  Amos,  a  Hosea,  or  a  Jeremiah,  with  exaggera- 
tion. Supported  by  the  people  of  Jerusalem,  badly  fought 
by  the  more  Hellenising  aristocrats,  and  hardly  disapproved 
by  the  others,  the  prophetic  writers  had,  at  least  to  some 
extent,  succeeded  in  imposing  their  ideas. 

The  prophetic  writers  and  the  crowd  of  common  folk 
who  had  followed  them  now  formed  an  opposition  party 
against  the  ruling  aristocracy.  Would  the  ambition  of 
this  turbulent  minority  be  satisfied  with  a  first  victory  ? 
They  professed  to  reform  the  government  and  the  Church 
of  Jerusalem ;  but  what  is  the  reform  of  a  government  or 
a  Church  if  not  the  substitution  of  a  better  government 
and  a  different  Church  ? 

Kead  over  again  the  invectives  of  the  prophetic  writers 
against  the  sacerdotal  aristocracy,  their  threats  and  their 

'  See  above,  p.  95. 


158  EZEKIEL 

maledictions.  What  did  they  want  ?  The  fall  of  the 
priest-aristocrats.  It  is  but  a  step  from  that  to  wish  to 
take  their  place  or  claim  to  succeed  them,  and  this  step 
was  taken  with  the  second  book  of  Ezekiel  and  the  legends 
of  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha. 

There  was,  however,  no  open  rupture. 

It  is  clear  that  the  prophetic  party  at  Jerusalem  was  a 
kind  of  Jewish  protestantism.  Eeligiously,  they  demanded 
a  return  to  the  ancient  traditions  and  ways,  the  purity  of 
the  primitive  dogmas,  and  the  severity  of  the  ancient 
virtues.  Politically,  they  wanted  to  replace  an  ancient 
aristocratic  government  by  a  new  democratic  government. 
In  ancient  Judaea,  as  in  certain  German  towns  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  to  govern  religiously  was  to  govern 
politically ;  and  the  struggle  of  Jewish  prophetism  with 
the  Mosaic  Levitism,  or  of  Protestantism  with  the  Koman 
Church,  is  the  struggle  of  a  democratic  theocracy  to  take 
the  place  of  an  aristocratic  theocracy. 

But,  while  the  men  for  whom  the  second  book  of 
Ezekiel  and  the  legends  of  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha 
were  composed  are  reformers,  they  were  not  rebels,  at 
least  in  the  third  century.  Perhaps  they  had  not  among 
them  a  man  of  decision  who  could,  like  Luther,  break 
openly  with  the  established  authority  ;  perhaps  they  would 
not  consent  to  such  a  rupture.  They  merely  betray  at 
times  a  significant  violence  against  the  hostile  party. ^ 
They  flatter  themselves  that  they  rely  on  persuasion  for 
the  acceptance  of  their  novelties ;  they  refuse  to  employ 
insurrectionary  means ;  they  give  a  foretaste  of  the  art  of 
despoiling  with  a  blessing. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  do  not  reform  for  the  pleasure 
of  reforming.  All  that,  in  the  Mosaic  legislation  and 
customs,  seems  to  them  to  befit  the  new  priesthood  which 
they  desire  to  institute,  is  accepted  by  them.  They 
preserve  as  much,  and  alter  as  little,  as  possible  of  the 

'  See,  for  instance,  Ezekiel  xliv,  10-15. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  159 

Levitical  prescriptions ;  their  innovations  are  confined  to 
essential  things.  Hence  there  are  many  resemblances  in 
detail  between  the  Mosaic  legislation  and  that  of  Ezekiel, 
the  customs  consecrated  by  the  books  of  Moses  and  those 
that  the  legends  of  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha  propose  to 
establish. 

Avowing  themselves  to  be  above  all  traditionalists,  the 
men  of  the  prophetic  party  were  careful  to  avoid  revolu- 
tionary airs.  They  purported  merely  to  establish  new 
institutions  by  the  side  of  the  old ;  and  there  again,  as  we 
shall  see,  they  went  too  far.  In  reality  they  tended 
toward  a  change  of  personalities  rather  than  a  change  of 
institutions. 

The  sanctuary  shall  be  for  the  priests,  sons  of  Zadok, 
which  have  kept  my  charge,  which  went  not  astray  when 
the  children  of  Israel  went  astray,  as  the  Levites  went 
astray.^ 

The  procedure  of  the  authors  of  Ezekiel,  Elijah,  and 
Elisha  is  the  unvarying  procedure  of  Jewish  literature. 
They  know  that  the  priesthood  which  governs  at  Jerusalem 
comes  from  Moses,  and  is  of  divine  institution  ;  prophetism 
is  careful  not  to  throw  doubt  on  those  truths.  But  they 
teach  and  explain  that,  beside  this  government  of  Mosaic 
origin  and  divine  institution,  there  is  another  government, 
another  priesthood,  likewise  of  divine  institution,  but  of 
prophetic  origin,  of  which  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha 
were  the  protagonists.  Against  Aaron,  the  first  Mosaic 
high-priest,  they  put  Zadok,  high-priest  of  King  Solomon. 
The  priests  of  the  levitic  aristocracy  were  called  Aaronids ; 
an  attempt  will  be  made  to  give  the  name  of  Zadocids  to 
the  priests  of  the  prophetic  party.  The  books  of  Moses 
had  been  written  to  justify  and  legitimise  the  official 
priesthood,  among  other  institutions ;  in  order  to  create 
a  new  prophetic  priesthood,  they  fabricate  ancient  books 
from  which  it  appears  that  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha 
were  prophets  invested  with  the  high  sacerdotal  functions, 

*  Ezekiel  xlviii.  11. 


160  EZEKIEL 

or  that  Jahveh  himself  dictated  to  his  prophet  Ezekiel, 
three  hundred  years  before,  the  legislation  with  which 
they  flatter  themselves  they  will  quietly  overthrow  the  old 
Levitic  government.  In  order  to  attain  its  objects,  the 
prophetic  party,  faithful  to  the  delinquencies  of  Judaism, 
uses  the  customary  stratagem  of  the  pseudo-ancient  books, 
and  appeals  to  the  will  of  the  national  god,  which  is  said 
to  have  been  made  known  some  centuries  before  in 
prophecies  and  legends  which  have  been  fortunately 
recovered. 

We  will  not  linger  over  the  legends  of  Samuel,  Elijah, 
and  Elisha.  They  relate  that  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha 
were  all  three  prophets,  but  that  all  three  exercised  the 
priesthood — which  is  in  contradiction  to  the  Levitic 
institution.  What  is  worse,  all  three  sacrificed  outside 
of  Jerusalem,  or  of  the  sanctuary  in  which  the  ark  of 
Jahveh  was  kept — a  thing  illicit  in  Samuel's  case,  but 
criminal  in  the  case  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  according  to 
the  express  terms  of  the  Mosaic  law,  because  both  are 
supposed  to  be  later  than  Solomon  and  the  building  of 
the  temple.  We  may  add  that  most  of  the  adventures  of 
the  three  prophets  are  "  duplicates  "  of  the  adventures  of 
Moses  or  Mosaic  characters  ;  for  instance,  Elijah  going  up 
to  Jahveh  on  Horeb.^  Finally,  and  decisively,  Samuel  is 
represented  as  taking  the  place  of  the  contemporary  high- 
priest,  who  has  become  unworthy  ;  as  to  Elijah  and  Elisha, 
they  ignore  the  Levitic  priesthood. 

We  will  make  a  summary  analysis  of  the  legislation 
proposed  by  the  second  book  of  Ezekiel. 

The  book  opens  with  a  plan  of  rebuilding  the  temple. 
The  question  was  then  being  discussed,  and  the  plan  of 
Ezekiel  agreed  so  well  with  the  feeling  of  his  contem- 
poraries that  the  high-priest  Simeon  the  Just  caused  the 
temple  to  be  restored  at  that  time,  from  the  foundations 
to  the  sanctuary,  including  the  enclosing  walls.' 

'  1  Kings  xix.  6-18.  •^  See  Ecclesiaslicus  1,  1-3, 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  161 

One  day,  it  seems  (the  author  of  the  second  book  of 
Ezekiel  says  which  day :  the  second  of  the  first  month 
of  the  twenty-fifth  year),  the  prophet  is  transported  in 
ecstasy,  in  the  land  of  Israel,  to  the  top  of  the  holy  moun- 
tain. Here  he  sees  a  man  whose  appearance  was  like  to 
brass ;  it  is  not  clear  if  this  man  is  Jahveh  himself  or  an 
angel  of  Jahveh.  Angel  or  god,  this  man  held  in  his 
hand  a  line  of  flax  and  a  measuring  reed.  He  says  to 
Ezekiel : — 

Son  of  man,  behold  with  thine  eyes,  and  hear  with 
thine  ears,  and  set  thine  heart  upon  all  that  I  shall  show 
thee ;  and  declare  all  that  thou  seest  to  the  house  of 
Israel.' 

Then  the  divine  apparition  takes,  with  its  cord  and 
reed,  all  the  measurements  of  a  building,  which  is  the 
ideal  temple And  Ezekiel  notes  carefully: — 

The  threshold,  one  reed 

The  first  chamber,  one  reed 

The  vestibule,  eight  cubits 

The  posts  of  the  vestibule,  two  cubits 

There  are  six  pages  of  it  in  our  Hebrew  Bible,  for  the 
writer  enters  into  the  minutest  details.  The  attempt  has 
been  made  to  reconstruct  the  plan  of  this  edifice  with  its 
minute  measurements.  Unfortunately,  certain  essential 
points  are  wanting  ;  there  are  evident  errors  in  the  text, 
and  some  contradictions.  The  plan  cannot  be  set  up 
without  many  hypotheses. 

When  scholars  believed  in  the  authenticity  of  the  book 
of  Ezekiel,  and  placed  it  in  the  period  of  the  Deportation, 
the  description  was  sometimes  referred  to  the  temple  of 
Solomon,  which  had  just  been  destroyed,  and  sometimes 
to  the  temple  which  Zorobabel  was  about  to  build.  We 
do  not  know  anything  of  the  temple  of  Solomon.  We 
suspect  what  the  temple  of  Zorobabel  was  like :  a  humble 
building,  made  of  fragments,  with  no  size  or  harmony — 
something  like  Our  Lady  of  Loretto  in  point  of   size, 

1  Ezekiel  xl.  4. 

M 


162  EZEKIEL 

Renan  says.  The  celebrated  temple  in  which  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  preached  was  the  third  temple,  the  masterpiece 
of  Herod  the  Great.  A  simple  plan  of  reconstruction,  the 
temple  described  by  Ezekiel  was  an  idealisation  of  the 
modest  sanctuary  of  Zorobabel,  which  seemed  inadequate 
to  all  in  the  third  century.  Without  departing  from  its 
arrangement  and  general  proportions,  the  writer  pointed 
out  to  his  contemporaries  what  improvements  were  advis- 
able, and  what  should  be  done  to  bring  the  building  up  to 
the  height  of  the  required  splendour.  But,  acting  on  the 
old  Judaic  method,  he  thought  it  best  to  attribute  his 
plans  and  counsels  to  Jahveh  himself,  speaking  through 
the  ancient  prophet  Ezekiel. 

When  the  temple  is  described,  with  its  sanctuary, 
vestibules,  courts,  external  galleries,  and  priests'  lodgings, 
Ezekiel  expounds  the  rites  of  the  altar  and  the  way  of 
offering  holocausts  and  shedding  blood  on  it.  He  then 
describes  the  new  organisation  of  the  clergy,  and  he 
suddenly  launches  anathema  on  the  old  Mosaic  clergy : — 

Let  it  suffice  you  of  all  your  abominations,  in  that  ye 
have  brought  into  my  sanctuary  strangers,  uncircumcised 
in  heart  and  uncircumcised  in  flesh,  to  be  in  my  sanctuary, 
to  pollute  it,  when  ye  offer  my  bread,  the  fat  and  the 
blood,  and  thoy  have  broken  my  covenant  because  of  all 
your  abominations.* 

The  old  Mosaic  clergy,  which  has  been  led  into  foreign 
abominations — that  is  to  say,  Hellenism — is  condemned. 
It  has  been  faithless  to  Jahveh.  It  must  be  replaced  by 
a  new  clergy  issuing  from  the  prophetic  party.  So,  in 
the  legends  of  Samuel,  the  prophet  takes  the  place  of  the 
Levitic  high-priest.  We  have  quoted  the  characteristic 
phrase : — 

The  sanctuaries  shall  be  for  the  priests,  sons  of  Zadok, 
who  went  not  astray,  as  the  Levites  went  astray. 

For  the  priests  who  are  sons  of  Aaron  will  be  sub- 
stituted the  priests  who  are  sons  of  Zadok.     In  reality, 

'  Ezekiel  xliv.  7. 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  163 

the  Zadocids  are  the  new  sacerdotal  corps  which  the 
prophetic  party  wants  to  substitute  for  the  old  Levitic 
corps  in  the  administration  of  the  temple  and  the  govern- 
ment of  the  State ;  or,  rather,  the  parts  are  reversed. 
The  former  aristocrats  will  become  the  servants  of  the 
new  masters.  For  the  first  time  we  find  in  Judaism  the 
revolutionary  formula,  "  The  first  shall  be  last."^ 

There  follows  a  complete  legislation  of  the  cult,  a  full 
ritual,  differing  little  from  the  Mosaic  code.  We  know 
that  the  Jews  do  not  innovate  without  some  use.  Then 
there  is  a  political  legislation,  in  which  we  find  again  the 
determination  to  establish  a  government  proceeding  from 
prophetism. 

A  prince  is  set  at  the  head  of  the  hierarchy.  The 
Hebrew  text  does  not  say  either  a  high-priest  or  a  king ; 
7iasi  means  originally  the  head  of  a  tribe.  We  must  see 
to  what  this  title  corresponds. 

The  nasi  of  Ezekiel  could,  without  having  the  title, 
exercise  the  functions  of  a  king ;  democracies  often  lean 
to  Caesarism,  out  of  fear  of  aristocracies ;  the  Jewish 
books  are  full  of  the  expectation  of  a  monarch  descending 
from  David ;  in  fine,  some  have  thought  of  the  Machabees, 
and  it  has  been  suggested  that  the  legislative  part  of  the 
book  of  Ezekiel  might  belong  to  the  second  century. 
But  the  7iasi  of  Ezekiel  has  none  of  the  characters  of  a 
king  or  a  tyrant. 

It  has  also  been  asked  if  the  institution  of  the  nasi  did 
not  correspond  to  a  movement  of  ideas  that  took  place, 
from  the  third  century,  in  favour  of  a  military  theocracy, 
with  a  kind  of  head  of  the  executive  power  depending  on 
a  legislative  priesthood.  The  Persian  peace  had  formerly 
allowed  them  to  form  a  sacerdotal  government  without 
military  organisation  ;  but  since  the  coming  of  Alexander 
the  state  of  war  had  been  almost  permanent  round 
Jerusalem.     Below  the  priests  who  governed  the   State 

»  See  Ezekiel  xliv.  10-15. 


164  EZEKIEL 

there  might,  these  writers  conclude,  have  seemed  to  be 
a  need  for  an  executive  power,  a  minister  of  war,  a 
general  commander  of  the  troops  which  were  charged  to 
guard  the  temple. 

It  is  a  gratuitous  hypothesis,  with  nothing  to  confirm 
it.  Nothing  in  the  text  of  Ezekiel  allows  us  to  liken  the 
nasi  to  an  executive  of  any  kind.  Indeed,  the  military 
spirit  was  never  less  in  any  people  than  it  was  among 
the  Jews ;  and  if  there  was  one  party  in  which  the 
military  spirit  was  wanting,  it  was  the  prophetic  party. 
The  old  aristocracy  may  have  developed  a  military  spirit 
with  its  Hellenism  ;  the  prophetic  writers,  on  the 
contrary,  want  no  other  guardian  of  the  temple  than 
Jahveh.  The  psalms  and  apocalypses  will  push  to 
paroxysmal  extremes  this  exclusive  abandonment  of 
oneself  in  the  hands  of  the  deity.  A  military  insti- 
tution seems  to  be  incompatible  with  the  prophetic  tradi- 
tion. 

The  Biblical  scholars  who  have  studied  the  question  of 
the  nasi  of  Ezekiel  should  have  been  edified  by  the 
extraordinary  absence  of  the  high-priest,  the  cohen 
hagadol,  from  this  legislation.  In  reality,  the  prince,  in 
the  second  book  of  Ezekiel,  is  the  new  title  proposed  by 
the  prophetic  party  for  the  new  high-priests.  The  former 
high-priests,  of  the  aristocratic  and  Hellenising  party — 
the  Aaronid  high-priests — were  cohen  hagadol ;  the  new 
high-priests,  of  the  democratic  party,  the  Zadocids,  must 
be  nasi.  A  new  dynasty  must  have  a  new  name. 
Though  the  cohen  hagadol  is  not  mentioned  in  the 
legislation  of  Ezekiel,  the  functions  attributed  to  the 
nasi  are  his.  At  the  head  of  the  reformed  sacerdotal 
corps  the  author  of  the  book  of  Ezekiel  puts  a  reformed 
high-priest,  a  religious  as  well  as  political  character. 

The  remainder  of  the  plan  presents  no  difficulty.  The 
sacerdotal  body  will  govern  and  render  justice  by  the 
side  of  the  prince. 

Below  them  Israel,   its  theoretical    frontiers  restored, 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  165 

mistress  of  Galilee  and  Samaria,  will  enjoy  the  old  land 
of  Canaan  promised  formerly  to  the  patriarchs. 

And  in  the  end  we  have  the  most  chimerical  utopia 
that  has  ever  been  imagined.  The  land  of  Palestine  is 
divided  among  the  twelve  ideal  tribes  by  means  of  straight 
lines  drawn  from  east  to  west,  forming  twelve  geome- 
trical and  almost  equal  portions,  with  Jerusalem  in  the 
centre,  a  sort  of  State  of  the  church,  the  privileged 
portion  of  the  new  priests.  And  the  book  Ezekiel  closes 
with  these  words  : — 

And  the  name  of   the  city  from  that  day  shall   be : — 
Jahveli-Shamma,  Jahveh-Is-Here.  ^ 

The  enterprise  of  the  prophetic  party  failed. 

Practical  impossibilities,  such  as  that  of  realising  the 
extravagant  division  of  the  land  of  Canaan  into 
geometrical  portions  among  tribes  that  existed  only  in 
theory,  would  not  have  been  an  obstacle  to  the  success 
of  the  legislation  of  Ezekiel  ;  the  Jewish  spirit  always 
liked  to  combine  utopia  with  reality.  The  literary 
poorness  of  Ezekiel's  project  was  a  graver  obstacle. 

Recall  the  legendary  fables,  the  profound  and  remote 
atmosphere,  of  the  Mosaic  books.  There  is  nothing  of 
the  kind  in  the  second  book  of  Ezekiel.  The  first  book 
of  Ezekiel,  the  lyric  book,  was  full  of  sublimity  and 
beauty,  but  the  second  was  too  earthy,  too  devoid  of 
inspiration,  too  bare  of  fiction,  to  captivate  oriental 
souls.  The  Mosaic  law  had  been  the  work  of  several 
generations  of  national  poets,  who  were  at  the  same 
time  resolute  politicians.  The  law  of  Ezekiel  was  the 
work  of  a  party-man,  who  lacked  imagination. 

Even  the  very  traditionalism  that  had  made  the 
fortune  of  the  prophetic  party  was  in  the  way  of  its 
ambition.  Its  adherents  were  bound  to  present  them- 
selves as  the  authentic  continuers  of  the  ancient  institu- 
tions.    How,  then,  could  they  impose  new  ones  ?     How 

'  Ezekiel  xlviii.  35, 


166  EZEKIEL 

could  they  reconcile  with  the  respect  due  to  the  Mosaic 
legends  some  of  the  counter-legends  of  Samuel,  Elijah, 
and  Elisha  ? 

The  legislation  of  Ezekiel  did  not  succeed.  The 
prescriptions  and  institutions  imitated  from  the  Mosaic 
codes  lived,  and  might  give  the  democrats  some  illusion 
of  success ;  the  innovations  failed. 

These  intrinsic  reasons  for  the  failure  of  the  prophetic 
enterprise  were  supplemented  by  the  historical  circum- 
stances in  which  it  took  place. 

In  a  period  of  trouble,  in  opposition  to  a  feeble  or 
unfortunate  high-priest,  prophetism  might  have  suc- 
ceeded ;  in  opposition  to  a  comparatively  fortunate  and 
strong  high-priest  like  Simeon  the  Just,  at  the  very  time 
when  Judsea  seemed  to  enjoy  a  little  peace,  it  was  bound  to 
fail.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  priesthood  had  rejected 
all  reform,  or  abandoned  itself  to  extreme  Hellenisation, 
the  reformers  would  have  found  new  weapons  in  the 
excess  of  popular  indignation ;  but  we  know  that 
prophetism  itself  had  eradicated  Hellenism  from  the 
priesthood,  and  this  first  success  prevented  it  from 
winning  again,  or  from  dethroning  its  opponent. 

We  have  compared  Jewish  prophetism  to  modern 
Protestantism,  and  the  analogy  goes  further.  Luther 
did  not  destroy  the  Eoman  Church  ;  in  establishing  a 
rival  Church  beside  it,  he  reformed  it.  It  is  too  little 
known  that,  on  many  points,  the  Roman  Church  satisfied 
the  demands  of  Protestants.  It  was  the  same  at 
Jerusalem  in  the  third  century.  The  prophetic  party 
constrained  the  clerical  aristocracy  to  make  certain 
reforms,  but  did  not  overthrow  it. 

While  the  prophetic  party  attempted  in  vain  to  impose 
its  laws  and  seize  the  government,  the  old  aristocracy 
completed  the  work  of  the  Mosaic  legislation,  and, 
thanks,  no  doubt,  to  the  action  of  Simeon  the  Just, 
victoriously  imposed  it.  The  prophetic  party  was  beaten, 
but  not  destroyed,  and  had  not  ceased  to  produce  great 


THE  SECOND  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL  167 

men.  The  causes  that  had  given  it  birth  remained,  and 
would  be  aggravated  after  the  death  of  Simeon.  It 
would  continue  to  agitate  Judaea  no  less  than  before. 
But  it  was  all  over  with  the  legislative  reforms  of  the 
second  book  of  Ezekiel,  and  the  traditions  which  the 
legends  of  Samuel,  Elijah,  and  Elisha  had  endeavoured 
to  implant.  When,  after  a  century  of  struggle  with  an 
aristocracy  that  falls  deeper  and  deeper  into  Hellenism, 
it  finally  has  its  revenge,  it  will  accept  and  appropriate 
the  old  Mosaic  law,  the  work  of  the  aristocracy ;  and  the 
book  of  Ezekiel  will,  so  the  Talmud  relates,  run  some 
risk  of  being  excluded  from  the  canon  of  the  sacred  books. 


Chapter  IV. 

THE  TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  THE  IMPEKIALIST 
EEVIVAL 

§   1.  The  Jewish  People  in  the  Days  of  the  Two  Isaiahs. 

From  the  third  century  onward  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
people  is  enacted,  partly  in  Palestine,  partly  in  the  Jewish 
colonies,  which  spread  more  and  more  around  the 
Mediterranean.  The  earliest  prophetic  writers  had 
arisen  under  the  stress  of  the  frightful  calamities  that 
had  fallen  on  Judsea  during  the  second  half  of  the  fourth 
century.  To  understand  the  last  prophetic  writers,  it  is 
necessary  to  resume  the  history  of  the  Jewish  people, 
during  the  following  centmy,  in  the  colonies  as  well  as  in 
Palestine. 

In  Palestine. — The  pontificate  of  Simeon  the  Just 
was  a  calm  after  the  storms  at  the  end  of  the  fourth 
century.  During  the  earlier  years  of  his  son,  Onias  II., 
this  peace  is  still  disturbed  only  at  rare  intervals  in 
Palestine.  But  from  the  year  247  the  wars  begin 
between  the  Ptolemies  of  Egypt  and  the  Seleucids  of 
Syria,  and  Palestine  is  once  more  plundered.  Again  we 
find  the  long  train  of  misfortunes  which  these  wars  drag 
after  them.  In  240  peace  is  restored  ;  Palestine  remains 
in  the  possession  of  Egypt.  Will  the  unhappy  country 
have  at  least  time  to  dress  its  wounds?  At  the  end 
of  some  years  the  war  will  be  renewed  between  the 
Syrians  and  the  Egyptians  (221-217).  Palestine  will 
again  witness  the  ceaseless  crossing  of  armies,  battles, 
and  towns  from  which  the  vanquished  will  burst  forth 
with  fury  and  the  conqueror  enter  with  threats.  In  201 
the  king  of  Syria  again  invades  Palestine.     The  war  lasts 

168 


JEWISH  PEOPLE  IN  DAYS  OF  TWO  ISAIAHS     169 

three  years  ;  in  the  end  the  Egyptians  are  beaten,  and 
the  king  of  Syria  remains  in  possession  of  Palestine. 
Judaea  has  changed  its  master. 

The  Jewish  historian  Josephus  has  told  us^  how 
severely  the  Palestinian  States  suffered  from  the  wars 
that  took  place  between  the  kings  of  Egypt  and  Syria. 
At  Jerusalem  the  humiliation  is  all  the  greater  from  the 
high  hopes  that  had  been  entertained.  Had  not  the 
books  of  Moses  promised  to  the  imperialist  ambition  of 
the  successors  of  Esdras  the  free  and  peaceful  possession 
of  the  land  of  Palestine  ?  The  chosen  people  of  Jahveh 
suffered,  in  subjection  to  the  goim,  in  proportion  to  its 
dreams. 

When  the  war  rages,  plunder  and  devastation  are 
multiplied ;  when  peace  follows,  exaction  begins  and 
violence  accompanies  it.  The  powerful  desire  but  to 
enrich  themselves ;  they  refuse  justice,  and  oppress  the 
weak  ;  on  the  pretext  of  gathering  the  tribute  claimed  by 
the  suzerain,  they  plunder  the  towns  and  the  country  ; 
the  tax-farmers  are  the  leaders  of  bands  who  go  from 
country  to  country,  extorting  the  debt  with  arms  in 
their  hands.  But  the  exactions  and  violence  seem  more 
cruel  to  the  people  of  Jerusalem  when  they  are  committed 
by  men  of  its  own  aristocracy,  and  when  its  leaders  rely 
on  the  foreign  master  in  maltreating  and  despoiling  it. 

The  Mosaic  law  rules  at  Jerusalem.  Under  the 
shadow  of  its  unchallenged  authority,  and  under  the 
suzerainty  of  the  Syrian  or  Egyptian  kings,  the  high- 
priest  is  a  kind  of  viceroy  who  wields  a  supreme  power. 
The  sacerdotal  aristocracy  surrounds  him ;  the  people 
obey.  The  recently  completed  theocratic  constitution 
is  in  full  vigour ;  but  there  is  an  irremediable  division  in 
the  depths  of  Jewish  society. 

The  hatred  of  the  rigorists  for  the  Hellenists  had 
gradually  risen.     To  the  prophets  the  forsaking  of  the 

'  Jewish  A7itiqiiities,  xiii.  1,  3 ;  2,  28  ;  3,  129. 


170    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPEEIALIST  EEVIVAL 

national  ways  was  an  apostasy.  The  prophets  had  set  up 
anew  the  Jewish  soul,  by  teaching  that  without  Jahveh 
and  the  law  of  Jahveh  the  Jewish  people  w^ere  doomed  to 
perish.  The  hatred  of  the  rigorist  Jews  for  the  foreigner 
was  great,  but  their  hatred  of  the  renegade  was  bound  to 
be  fiercer. 

Day  by  day  the  abyss  grew  deeper.  The  Jews  of  the 
people,  in  the  midst  of  their  misery,  deluded  themselves 
with  hopes  that  promised  them  revenge ;  and  already 
some  of  the  aristocrats  of  the  higher  clergy  assured  them- 
selves that  these  hopes  were  vain.  In  the  humiliation  of 
the  land,  the  sons  of  the  clerical  aristocracy  of  Jerusalem 
were  contented  with  a  state  of  things  that  left  them 
masters  of  Judasa  under  an  easily  tolerable  suzerainty, 
wealthy,  and  independent  enough  to  enjoy  their  wealth. 

The  anger  of  the  traditionalist  and  nationalist  Jew 
against  the  renegade  Jew,  of  the  poor  against  the  rich, 
was  inflamed  by  the  innumerable  exactions,  the  denials 
of  justice,  the  increasingly  severe  oppression,  with 
which  the  people  reproached  their  aristocracy.  It 
seems,  if  we  take  the  evidence  of  contemporary  writers, 
making  allowance  for  rhetorical  exaggeration,  that  this 
oppression  was  extreme,  and  that  the  common  folk, 
exploited  and  flouted  by  their  masters,  reached  a 
state  of  the  most  violent  resentment.  The  scandal 
was  at  its  height,  among  the  pious  and  patriotic  poor 
of  the  lower  classes  at  Jerusalem,  when,  towards  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  under  the  pontificate  of 
Onias  II.,  a  certain  Joseph,  son  of  Tobias,  obtain  from 
Ptolemy  Philopator  the  farming  of  the  taxes  in  Palestine. 
This  Joseph,  son  of  Tobias,  was  the  nephew  of  the  high- 
priest  Onias  II.  ;  he  was  thus  one  of  the  heads  of  the 
Jerusalem  aristocracy.  In  his  Hellenism,  his  pomp,  his 
exactions,  Joseph,  son  of  Tobias,  exhibits  all  the  grievances 
of  the  children  of  Jahveh  against  their  aristocracy. 

Here  is  the  episode  of  Joseph,  son  of  Tobias,  according 
to  Flavins  Josephus.     In  order  to  give  an  idea  of  Jewish 


JEWISH  PEOPLE  IN  DAYS  OF  TWO  ISAIAHS     171 

society  at  the  time,  we  cannot  do  better  than  quote  at 
length  the  picturesque  account  in  his  Jewish  Antiquities, 
which  critics  are  disposed  to  place  in  the  Days  of  Ptolemy 
Philopator  (222-205). 

The  high-priest  Onias  had  a  restricted  intelligence,  and 
was  dominated  by  the  love  of  money ;  hence,  as  he  had 
not  discharged  the  tax  of  twenty  talents  of  silver,  which 
his  fathers  paid  the  kings,  out  of  their  own  revenues,  in 
the  name  of  the  people,  he  caused  King  Ptolemy  to  be  very 
angry.  Ptolemy  sent  a  messenger  to  Jerusalem,  reproaching 
Onias  for  not  having  paid  the  tax,  and  threatening  that,  if 
he  did  not  receive  the  sum,  he  would  divide  the  Jewish 
territory  into  lots  and  settle  soldiers  on  them  as  colonists. 
The  Jews  were  terrified  on  hearing  the  king's  threats ;  but 
nothing  could  move  Onias,  blinded  by  his  avarice. 

There  was  at  the  time  a  certain  Joseph,  a  young  man, 
but  already  enjoying  the  reputation  of  a  grave,  prudent, 
and  just  man  with  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  ;  he  was 
the  son  of  Tobias  and  of  a  sister  of  the  high-priest  Onias. 
His  mother  having  apprised  him  of  the  presence  of  the 
envoy — for  he  was  then  on  a  journey  at  Phicola,  the 
village  to  which  he  belonged — he  returned  to  the  city,  and 
reproached  Onias  with  not  considering  the  safety  of  his 
fellow- citizens  and  wishing  to  put  the  people  in  danger. 

Onias  persisting  in  his  refusal,  Joseph  then  asked  his 

permission  to  go  on  an  embassy  to  Ptolemy  in  the  name 
of  the  nation ;  and  Onias  granted  it.  Joseph  went  up  to 
the  temple,  therefore,  summoned  the  people  to  assemble, 
and  begged  the  citizens  to  be  neither  disturbed  nor 
dismayed  by  the  indifference  of  his  uncle  Onias  in  their 
regard,  but  to  keep  their  minds  calm  and  banish  their 
gloomy  presentiments.  He  promised,  in  fact,  to  go  on  an 
embassy  to  the  king  and  persuade  him  that  they  had  done 
no  ^^Tong.  At  these  words  the  crowd  thanked  Joseph  ; 
and  he,  going  down  from  the  temple,  gave  hospitality  in 
his  own  house  to  Ptolemy's  envoy,  heaped  rich  presents 
on  him,  and,  after  treating  him  generously  for  several 
days,  sent  him  back  to  the  king,  adding  that  he  would 
shortly  follow  himself 

The  envoy,  on  his  return  to  Egypt,  told  the  king  of  the 
obstinacy  of  Onias,  and  spoke  to  him  of  the  great  merit 
of  Joseph,  who  was  coming  to  clear  the  people  of  the 
delinquencies  charged  against  them.  He  praised  the 
young  man  so  much  that  he  made  the  king  and  his 
wife  Cleopatra  well  disposed  towards  Joseph  before  he 


172    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

arrived.  Joseph  sent  to  borrow  money  of  some  of  his 
friends  in  Samaria,  and,  after  preparing  all  that  was 
necessary  for  the  journey — clothes,  utensils,  and  beasts 
of  burden,  which  cost  him  about  twenty  thousand 
drachmas — he  went  to  Alexandria.  It  happened  that  at 
the  same  time  all  the  chief  citizens  and  magistrates  of  the 
cities  of  Syria  and  Phoenicia  were  going  there  in  connection 
with  the  farming  of  the  taxes,  which  the  king  sold  every 
year  to  the  strongest  men  in  each  city.  When  these  saw 
Joseph  on  the  road,  they  railed  at  his  poverty  and 
simplicity.  But  Joseph,  hearing  on  his  arrival  at 
Alexandria  that  Ptolemy  was  at  Memphis,  went  to 
meet  him.  The  king  was  seated  in  his  chariot  with 
his  wife  and  his  friend  Athenion,  the  very  man  who 
had  been  sent  to  Jerusalem  and  entertained  by  Joseph. 
When  Athenion  saw  him,  he  at  once  made  him  known  to 
the  king,  saying  that  this  was  the  young  man  whose 
kindness  and  generosity  he  had  praised  to  him  on  his 
return  from  Jerusalem.  Ptolemy  then  first  embraced 
him,  made  him  enter  the  chariot,  and,  as  soon  as  Joseph 
was  seated,  began  to  complain  of  the  procedure  of  Onias. 

"Forgive  him,"  said  Joseph,  "on  account  of  his  age; 
for  thou  knowest  assuredly  that  old  men  have  often  but 
the  intelligence  of  children.  But  we,  the  young,  will  give 
thee  full  satisfaction,  and  thou  shalt  have  no  fault  to  find 
with  us." 

The  king,  delighted  with  the  charm  and  sprightliness 
of  the  young  man,  conceived  such  an  affection  for  him  as 
if  he  had  long  known  him ;  he  invited  him  to  stay  in  his 
palace,  and  share  his  meals  every  day.  When  the  king 
had  returned  to  Alexandria,  the  leading  men  of  Syria, 
seeing  Joseph  sitting  beside  him,  were  very  envious. 

When  the  day  had  come  on  which  the  taxes  of  the  cities 
were  to  be  put  up  at  auction,  those  whose  dignity  gave 
them  the  first  rank  in  their  country  came  to  buy  them. 
The  offers  rose  to  eight  thousand  talents  for  the  taxes 
of  Coele- Syria,  Phojnicia,  Judaea,  and  Samaria.  Then 
Joseph  approached,  and  accused  the  buyers  of  having 
come  to  an  arrangement  to  offer  the  king  so  poor  a 
price  for  the  taxes.  He  declared  that  he  was  prepared 
to  give  double,  and  deliver  up  to  the  king,  in  addition,  the 
goods  of  those  who  had  failed  in  their  duty  to  his  house ; 
these  goods  were,  in  fact,  assigned  with  the  taxes.  The 
king  heard  him  with  pleasure,  and  said  he  was  ready 
to  award  him  the  farming  of  the  taxes,  because  he 
would  thereby  have  an  increased  revenue ;  but  ho  asked 


JEWISH  PEOPLE  IN  DAYS  0^  TWO  ISAIAHS    1?3 

if   Joseph   had   security   to   offei'.     Joseph   replied   very 
cleverly : — 

"  I  will  find  you  excellent  people  whom  you  cannot 
distrust." 

The  king  asking  who  they  were ; — 

"  I  give  you  as  security,  O  king,  thyself  and  thy  wife, 
each  for  the  portion  that  is  due  to  the  other." 

Ptolemy  laughed,  and  allowed  him  to  have  the  taxes 
without  security.  This  favour  greatly  angered  those  who 
had  come  from  the  cities  of  Egypt,  as  they  felt  themselves 
relegated  to  the  second  rank.  And  each  returned  to  his 
country  with  his  little  disgrace. 

Joseph  obtained  of  the  king  two  thousand  foot-soldiers, 
for  he  had  asked  troops  in  order  to  bring  to  reason  those 
who  might  despise  his  authority  in  the  cities ;  and,  after 
borrowing  five  hundred  talents  from  the  friends  of  the 
king  in  Alexandria,  he  set  out  for  Syria.  When  he 
reached  Ascalon,  he  demanded  that  the  inhabitants  should 
pay  the  tax.  They  refused  to  pay  anything,  and  even 
insulted  him  ;  then  he  seized  the  chief  among  them,  slew 
a  score  of  them,  seized  their  goods — about  a  thousand 
talents — and  sent  them  to  the  king,  informing  him  of 
what  had  happened.  Ptolemy  admired  his  decision, 
praised  his  conduct,  and  gave  him  a  free  hand.  The 
Syrians  were  terrified  at  this  news,  and,  having  under 
their  eyes,  as  an  example  well  calculated  to  discourage 
disobedience,  the  fate  of  the  victims  at  Ascalon,  they 
opened  their  gates,  received  Joseph  with  every  attention 
and  paid  the  tribute.  The  inhabitants  of  Scythopolis 
however,  attempted  to  insult  him  and  refuse  him  the  tax, 
which  they  had  hitherto  paid  without  difficulty ;  there 
also  he  had  the  chief  men  put  to  death,  and  sent  their 
goods  to  the  king.  When  he  had  collected  a  great  deal  of 
money,  and  made  a  large  profit  on  the  farming  of  the 
taxes,  he  made  use  of  it  to  strengthen  the  power  he  had, 
thinking  it  wise  to  use  the  goods  he  had  acquired  in 
preserving  what  had  been  the  source  of  his  present 
fortune.  He  therefore  sent  many  presents  to  the  king, 
to  Cleopatra,  to  their  friends,  and  to  all  who  had  power 
at  Court,  thus  purchasing  their  good  will. 

He  enjoyed  this  prosperity  for  twenty-two  years,  and 
became  the  father  of  seven  sons  by  his  first  wife,  and,  by 
the  daughter  of  his  brother  Solymios,  of  a  son  named 
Hyrcan.^ 

*  Jeivish  Antiquities,  xii.  4,  from  the  translation  of  Theodore  Reinach. 


174     TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  KEVIVAL 

It  is  between  this  Hyrcan  and  his  brothers  that  the 
dissensions  and  intestine  wars  arose  which  were  to 
desolate  Judaea  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  centur3\ 

In  the  Colonies. — But  in  the  third  century  the 
Jewish  people  is  not  confined  to  Judaea ;  it  is  found 
wherever  Jewish  colonies  have  been  established ;  and  in 
the  colonies  the  secular  hopes  of  the  Jews  are  no  more 
realised  than  in  Judaea. 

We  shall  close  this  volume  with  a  comprehensive  study 
of  the  expansion  of  the  Jews  in  the  Mediterranean  basin.' 
We  have  already  seen  the  Jews  spread,  first  in  Palestine, 
then  in  Syria,  Phoenicia,  and  Egypt ;  soon  we  shall  see 
them  penetrate  into  Asia  Minor,  the  Greek  islands,  and 
Greece  itself. 

Deportation  and  emigration  have  done  their  work. 
Violence  and  misery  alone  have  driven  the  Jews  from 
their  country,  and  these  colonists  are,  in  the  main,  merely 
exiles  whose  misfortunes  are  incessantly  deplored  by  the 
prophets,  and  whose  triumphant  return  they  are  ever 
predicting. 

However  widely  they  have  spread,  the  Jewish  colonies 
are  nevertheless,  in  the  third  century,  lamentable  settle- 
ments in  which  misery  reigns  and  men  are  but  pariahs. 
Already  the  Jewish  quarter  is  a  thing  of  contempt  and 
detestation  among  the  nations.  How  could  these  folk, 
who  mingle  not  with  the  people  among  whom  they  live, 
preserve  their  own  clothing  and  usages,  isolate  themselves 
in  their  sectarian  pride,  think  themselves  better  than 
others  in  spite  of  their  sordid  poverty,  and  cannot  conceal 
their  envy,  if  not  their  hopes,  expect  from  other  men 
anything  but  hatred  in  return  for  their  hostility,  and 
disdain  for  their  weakness '? 

After  so  many  promises  of  a  glorious  return  to  the 
mother  country,  the  Jews  of  the  colonies  wnll  be  still  in 

1  Part  ni.,  ch.  iv. 


THE  FIEST  ISAIAH  175 

the  second  century  what  they  were  in  the  third  :  unhappy 
exiles,  dying,  one  after  another,  in  a  surfeit  of  humiha- 
tion,  under  the  enmity  of  a  foreign  sky. 

Thus  did  the  reahty  behe  the  old  Jewish  hopes,  from 
the  third  century  onward,  in  the  colonies  and  in  Judaea. 
The  situation  was  this :  in  Judaea  were  foreign  domina- 
tion, oppression,  internal  divisions,  and  exactions  on  the 
part  of  the  clerical  aristocracy ;  beyond  the  Jewish 
frontiers  was  the  vast  field  of  misery  in  which  the  exiles 
shuddered,  hated  by,  and  hating,  other  men. 

The  most  adventurous  optimism  could  with  difficulty 
cast  a  few  rays  of  light  on  this  sombre  picture.  Jeru- 
salem was  still  the  most  important  town,  its  temple  the 
most  celebrated  sanctuary,  and  Judaea  the  leading  State 
of  Palestine ;  beyond  Palestine,  the  Jewish  colonies 
spread  the  name  of  Jahveh  in  the  great  cities  of  the 
eastern  Mediterranean.  To  maintain  and  renew  this 
confidence,  to  sustain  their  courage,  to  rekindle  the  fire 
of  the  imperialism  of  Jerusalem,  there  was  need  of  the 
work  of  the  men  of  genius  who  wrote  under  the  name  of 
the  prophet  Isaiah. 

§  2.  The  First  Isaiah. 

The  collection  of  prophecies  which,  in  our  Bible,  bears 
the  name  of  Isaiah,  is  divided  into  two  quite  distinct 
parts.  Critics  of  the  shghtest  shade  of  independence 
have  long  since  unanimously  agreed  in  recognising  them 
as  two  different  works,  which  it  is  customary  to  call  the 
First  and  the  Second  Isaiah.  The  one  comprises  chapters 
i.-xxxix.  of  the  collection,  the  other  chapters  xl.-lxvi.  It 
is  further  possible,  and  even  probable,  that  the  chapters 
ascribed  to  each  of  the  two  Isaiahs  come  from  a  number 
of  different  writers. 

The  author — let  us  say  the  principal  author — of  the 
prophecies  of  the  First  Isaiah  followed  the  tradition  of 
his  forerunners.     For  his  fabulous  material  he,  like  they. 


176    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  iMPElRlALiST  EEVlVAL 

took  a  situation  and  the  name  of  a  prophet  in  the  ancient 
history  of  Judaea,  and  he  represented  as  spoken  to  this 
prophet,  in  the  circumstances  of  the  situation  he  had 
chosen,  the  words  which  he  himself,  a  man  of  the  third 
century,  wanted  to  impress  upon  his  contemporaries. 
The  authors  of  the  books  of  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  had 
chosen  the  last  years  of  the  former  kingdom  of  Judah ; 
the  author  of  the  book  of  Isaiah  went  farther  back  into 
the  past,  and  chose  the  period  of  Hezekiah  and  the  last 
kings  of  Ephraim.  The  book  of  Isaiah,  however,  is  not 
so  much  a  political  romance  as  a  collection  of  anecdotes 
and  fine  odes.  The  anecdotes  are  episodes  of  ancient 
Jewish  history,  in  which  the  author  introduces  his 
prophet  with  an  action  or  a  discourse ;  the  odes  are 
invectives  against  the  Jewish  aristocrats  who  indulge  in 
Hellenic  ways,  or  oracular  utterances  on  neighbouring 
peoples,  Tyre,  Egypt,  Syria,  and  Babylon. 

On  the  doctrinal  side  the  First  Isaiah  continues  the 
work  of  prophetism.  He  resumes  the  invective  of 
Jeremiah  against  the  clergy  and  the  Levitic  legislation 
in  the  famous  apostrophe :  "To  what  purpose  is  the 
multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  saith  Jahveh :  I 
am  full  of  the  burnt-offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of 
fed  beasts."  ^  It  is  not  a  question,  as  so  many  writers 
have  said,  of  a  profession  of  spiritual  faith,  but  of  attack- 
ing the  corruption  of  an  aristocracy  that  lives  on  the 
temple  and  oppresses  the  people.  There  is  nothing  new 
in  it.  The  originality  of  the  First  Isaiah  consists  in 
responding  to  the  misery  and  despair  of  his  compatriots 
with  the  imperialist  dream  of  a  conquest  of  the  world. 

Esdras  and  his  successors  had,  after  the  Eestoration, 
created  Jewish  nationalism.  In  the  midst  of  the  small 
States  of  Palestine  they  had,  in  concentrating  the  State 
of  Jerusalem  round  the  name  of  Jahveh,  created  a  Jewish 
soul.     Keduced    to    a   few   thousand    men,   vanquished, 

'  Isaiah  i.  11,  and  following. 


THE  FIEST  ISAIAH  177 

oppressed,  enslaved  for  a  century,  the  little  people  had 
not  returned  to  life  with  the  spirit  of  some  great  con- 
quered nation  that  is  suddenly  saved  by  a  brilliant  victory. 
Defeat,  oppression,  slavery,  and  weakness  had  taught  it 
patience.  Stubborn,  but  humble,  concealing  behind 
their  half-closed  eyes  their  unconquerable  ambition,  the 
companions  of  Esdras  had  undertaken,  noiselessly,  with 
bent  backs,  to  build  the  house  of  Jahveh. 

We  have  seen  how  they  taught  the  men  of  Jerusalem 
that  the  misfortunes  of  their  fathers  had  been  a  punish- 
ment for  their  unfaithfulness  to  Jahveh,  and  that  Jahveh 
had  promised  to  reward  them,  if  they  were  faithful  to 
him. 

Then  the  famous  theory  of  the  Covenant  had  been 
gradually  shaped.  The  duty  of  the  Jewish  people  is  to 
be  faithful  to  Jahveh ;  the  duty  of  Jahveh  is  to  reward 
the  Jewish  people,  if  the  Jewish  people  is  faithful  to 
Jahveh.  In  the  first  Mosaic  mashal,  however,  in 
Deuteronomy,  the  reward  promised  to  the  Jewish  people 
consists  of  nothing  but  the  free  and  peaceful  possession 
of  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  the  most  beautiful 
country  in  the  world :  thus  do  the  Jews  describe 
Palestine. 

The  free  and  peaceful  possession  of  Palestine  is  the 
ideal  of  the  early  77ioshli?)i  and  of  Deuteronomy. 
"  Jahveh,    thy  god,   will    set    thee    on   high    among   the 

nations  of  the  earth all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  shall 

be  afraid  of  thee  "  ;^  that  is  the  maximum  and  exceptional 
formula  of  the  promises  of  Jahveh  to  the  fourth  century. 
The  ambition  of  the  Jews  of  Deuteronomy  had  not  gone 
beyond  that ;  their  dream  was  to  be  happy  on  the  soil 
that  Jahveh  had  sworn  to  their  fathers  he  would  give 
them.^     The  promise  was  restricted  : — 

From    the    wilderness    to    Lebanon,    from    the    river 
Euphrates  to  the  western  sea,  shall  your  coast  be.' 

*  Deicteronomy  xxviii.  1  and  10.  -  Deuteronomy  xxx.  20. 

*  Deuteronomy  xi.  24. 

N 


178    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

And  as,  at  this  time,  the  Jerusalem  aristocracy  had  just 
put  forth  the  name  and  theory  of  the  people  of  Israel, 
gathering  together  under  the  name  the  whole  of  the 
populations  which  it  meditated  ruling  and  assimilating, 
the  famous  programme  "  Israel  in  the  Promised  Land  " 
represented  the  whole  imperialism  of  the  time. 

Confronted  with  the  irruption  and  the  menace  of 
Hellenism,  Hosea  and  Amos  strive  to  recall  the  people 
to  their  duties ;  and,  like  Deuteronomy,  they  merely 
offer  their  contemporaries  the  promise  of  happiness  at 
home. 

Jeremiah,  in  the  dread  of  the  danger  that  nearly 
wrecks  Judaism  in  the  days  of  the  successors  of 
Alexander,  is  a  mild  soul,  haunted  only  by  the  threat 
of  the  catastrophes  that  are  about  to  fall  again  upon 
Jerusalem,  if  Jerusalem  is  unfaithful.  After  the  threat, 
however,  Jeremiah  does  not  fail  to  tell  and  to  repeat  the 
promise.  But  it  suffices  for  him  to  tell  of  the  flourishing 
of  the  Jewish  State,  the  replanting  of  their  vines  and 
fig-trees,  the  dancing  of  the  daughters  of  Jerusalem,  on 
peaceful  evenings,  to  the  sound  of  zithers  and  tam- 
bourines. Jeremiah  often  addresses  foreign  nations ; 
though  by  foreign  nations,  in  Jeremiah,  we  must  under- 
stand the  States  which  surround  Judsea.  Never  (except, 
perhaps,  once)  does  Jeremiah  turn  to  the  Islands ;  in  the 
Bible  the  Islands  are  the  Greek  world,  and  Jeremiah  does 
not  look  so  far. 

Ezekiel,  in  his  sombre  visions  of  the  future,  was  hardly 
attentive  to  anything  but  his  country.  He  had  put  his 
particular  formula  on  the  ancient  promises ;  but  had  he 
enlarged  it  ? 

Isaiah  is  the  first  to  turn  to  the  Islands. 

The  dream  of  a  universal  conquest  is  the  stroke  of 
genius  of  the  First  Isaiah,  though  it  is  foreshadowed  in 
the  authors  of  the  last  Mosaic  narratives. 

We  know  what  the  situation  of  the  Jewish  people  is  at 
the  time.     In  Judaea  it  is  subject  to  foreigners  ;  a  corrupt 


THE  FIEST  ISAIAH  179 

aristocracy  oppresses  it ;  constant  wars  burden  the  land 
of  Israel.  In  the  colonies  it  vegetates  miserably ;  the  son 
dies  after  the  father  without  having  seen  once  more  the 
sky  of  his  country.  They  are  far  from  counting  on  the 
old  hopes  of  peace,  glory,  and  happiness ;  faithfulness  has 
not  had  its  reward.  And  it  seems  to  the  most  optimistic 
that  the  fulfilment  of  the  divine  promises  is  very  far  off, 
very  difficult,  if  not  quite  chimerical.  The  free  and 
peaceful  possession  of  Palestine  ;  Israel  prospering  in 
the  promised  land !  The  reality  was  very  far  removed 
from  the  dream. 

What  could  be  said  to  the  Jewish  people  to  restore  its 
confidence  and  courage  ? 

In  a  sublime  invention  the  First  Isaiah,  refusing  to 
preach  a  perilous  defensive,  suddenly  turns  round,  and, 
taking  the  offensive  against  the  enemies  of  his  country 
and  his  party,  he  teaches  the  Jews  that  they  have  nothing 
to  fear,  and  that  not  only  will  every  promise  be  fulfilled, 
but  Jahveh  will  give  his  people,  at  one  stroke,  a  hundred 
times  more  than  he  promised. 

Of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  peace  there  shall 
be  no  end,  about  the  throne  of  David,  and  about  his 
kingdom,  to  order  it,  and  to  establish  it  with  judgment 
and  with  justice  from  henceforth  even  for  ever.  The  zeal 
of  Jahveh  of  the  Hosts  will  perform  this.^ 

The  golden  age  that  other  poets  had  put  at  the  begin- 
ning of  time  is  foreseen  in  the  future  by  the  First  Isaiah. 

And  on  that  day  the  shoot  of  David  shall  be  an  ensign 
for  the  nations ;  to  it  shall  the  nations  turn  ;  and  his  rest 
shall  be  glory .^ 

On  that  day  Philistia  will  be  conquered,  Edom  and 
Moab  will  be  the  prey  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  the 
sons  of  Ammon  will  be  subject  to  them.''  To  Dumah 
(probably  Edom)  it  shall  be  said : — Submit.^  Tyre  will 
be  destroyed,  but  it  will  rise  again  after  seventy  years  in 

'  Isaiah  ix.  7.      "^  Isaiah  xi.  10.      ^  Isaiah  xi.  14.     *  Isaiah  xxi.  12. 


180    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPEEIALIST  EEVIVAL 

order  that  its  wealth  may  be  offered  to   the  temple   at 
Jerusalem. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  Tyre  shall 
be  forgotten  seventy  years,  according  to  the  days  of  one 
King ;  after  the  end  of  seventy  years  shall  Tyre  sing  as 
an  harlot : — 

Take  thy  guitar, 

Kun  through  the  town. 

Forgotten  courtesan  ; 

Dance  thou  for  ever, 
Sing  without  end. 
That  men  recall  thee  ! 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  after  the  end  of  seventy  years, 
that  Jahveh  will  visit  Tyre,   and  she  shall  return  to  her 
hire,  and  shall  commit  fornication  with  all  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

And  her  merchandise  and  her  hire  shall  be  consecrated 
to  Jahveh ;  it  shall  not  be  ti-easured,  nor  laid  up ;  for 
her  merchandise  shall  be  for  them  that  dwell  before  the 
face  of  Jahveh,  to  eat  sufficiently  and  for  magnificent 
clothing.^ 

The  Ethiopians  shall  be  conquered,  but  they  will  submit 
and  will  bring  offerings  to  the  temple  of  Jahveh;^  the 
Egyptians  shall  be  chastised,  but  they  will  turn  to 
Jahveh,  and  he  will  hear  them;^  Syria  will  accept  the 
god  of  Jerusalem ;  there  will  be  a  road  from  Egypt  to 
Syria,  and  Jahveh  will  bless  the  submission  of  the  Syrians 
and  the  Egyptians.^  AVhat  is  the  meaning  of  the  con- 
version of  the  Syria  of  the  Seleucids,  and  the  Egypt  of 
the  Ptolemies,  if  not  the  submission  of  all  that  the  Jews 
of  the  third  century  know  of  Hellenism '?  And  all  these 
victories  will  have  for  prelude  the  reconciliation ;  that  is 
to  say,  the  definitive  union  of  Judah  and  Ephraim ; '  that 
is  to  say,  of  Jerusalem  and  all  the  ancient  Palestinian 
towns — in  other  words,  the  final  constitution  of  the  Israel 
which  symbolises  the  Jewish  ideal. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days  that  the 
mountain  of  Jahveh's  house  shall  be  established  in  the 

'  Isaiah  xxiii.  15-18.         -  Isaiah  xviii.  7.         ^  Isaiah  xix.  21-22. 
*  Isaiah  xix.  23.  *  Isaiah  xi.  13. 


THE  FIEST  ISAIAH  181 

top  of  the  mountains,  and  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills  ; 
and  all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it. 

And  many  peoples  shall  come  and  say :  Come  ye,  and 
let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  Jahveh,  to  the  house  of 
the  god  of  Jacob  ;  and  he  will  teach  us  of  his  ways,  and 
we  will  walk  in  his  paths. 

For  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of 
Jahveh  from  Jerusalem. 

And  he  shall  judge  among  the  nations,  and  shall  rebuke 
many  peoples.' 

The  submission  of  the  world  is  the  necessary  and 
logical  consequence  of  the  covenant.  Provided  Israel 
observes  the  conditions,  Jahveh  will  observe  them  on  his 
side ;  and  the  work  of  Jahveh  will  be,  not  only  to  make 
Israel  powerful  and  prosperous,  but  to  bring  the  whole 
world  to  kneel  before  it.  For  the  first  time  in  the  story 
of  Judaism,  the  First  Isaiah  says  it  explicitly.  It  is  a 
momentous  event.  Until  that  time  they  thought  only 
of  obtaining  from  Jahveh  the  peaceful  enjoyment  of 
Palestine ;  now  they  dream  of  becoming  masters  of  the 
world.  The  history  of  the  Jews  will  be  nothing  else  but 
the  conflict  of  this  ambition  with  the  reality. 

The  whole  is  interconnected  as  cause  and  effect.  The 
grandeur  of  the  future  held  out  to  the  Jews  has  magnified 
beyond  measure  the  god  who  is  capable  of  making  such 
promises ;  while,  by  a  reaction  of  the  effect  on  its  cause, 
the  greatness  of  the  god  enlarges  the  splendour  of  his 
promise.  To  the  First  Isaiah  belongs  the  glory  of  first 
magnifying  Jahveh,  the  god  of  Israel,  to  the  proportions 
of  the  god  of  the  universe. 

We  know  the  Jahveh  of  the  early  nomads  settled  in 
Palestine,  a  tribal  god,  becoming  later  the  patron-god  of 
the  ancient  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Ephraim,  entirely 
similar  to  Camos,  the  patron-god  of  Moab,  or  Milkom, 
the  patron-god  of  Ammon.  In  the  days  of  Esdras  the 
Jewish  soul  had  needed,  if  it  were  to  rise  again  and 
endure,  to  hold  itself   aloof   in  a  proud  patriotism.     At 

*  Isaiah  ii.  2-4. 


182     TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

the  same  time  it  necessarily  isolated  Jahveh  amid  the 
congenital  and  neighbom-ing  gods ;  and  from  that  time 
Jahveh  had  begun  to  play  a  separate  part,  with  a  pride 
equal  to  the  pride  of  his  people,  in  the  crowd  of  Pales- 
tinian gods. 

Then,  persevering  in  a  pretension  that  gave  it  greater 
strength,  the  Jewish  soul  had  come  to  regard  itself  as 
chosen  for  an  extraordinary  destiny  among  other  peoples. 
And  at  the  same  time  Jahveh  became,  for  the  Jews,  a 
higher  god  among  the  other  gods.  That  is  the  period  of 
Deuteronomy,  There  are  plenty  of  texts  showing  Jahveh 
as  a  god  above  the  other  gods.  Does  not  Moses  sing,  after 
the  crossing  of  the  Ked  Sea  : — 

"  Who  is  like  unto  thee  among  the  gods,  0  Jahveh  ?  "  ^ 
For  the  First  Isaiah  Jahveh  becomes  the  supreme  god ; 
beside  him  there  are  but  demons  and  angels.  The  demons 
are  the  strange  gods,  the  hostile  gods,  the  gods  of  foreigners 
and  foes,  who  will  all  disappear  on  the  day  of  the  victory 
of  Jahveh  ;  the  angels  are  the  servants  of  Jahveh,  encircling 
his  throne  in  the  heavens.  Jahveh  is  the  one  god,  the 
true  god.  Deuteronomy  and  Jeremiah  himself  proclaimed 
that  the  worship  of  other  gods  was  the  greatest  of  crimes. 
The  First  Isaiah  is  not  more  indulgent,  but  he  recognises 
a  new  sentiment ;  he  feels  that  the  strange  gods  are 
inferior  gods,  that  they  are  doomed  to  perish,  and  will 
perish. 

In  that  day  man  shall  cast  their  idols  of  silver,  and 
their  idols  of  gold,  which  they  made  each  one  for  himself 
to  worship,  to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats.'^ 

The  moment  will  come  presently  when  the  Second 
Isaiah  will  add  irony  to  malediction,  and,  railing  at  these 
idols  of  wood  or  gold,  made  by  the  hand  of  man,  will  make 
it  plain  that  Jahveh  alone  is  god,  and  that  the  other  gods 
are  nothing. 

With  the  history  of  Jahveh  corresponds  the  history  of 

^  Exodus  XV.  11.  2  Xsaiah  ii.  20. 


THE  FIRST  ISAIAH  183 

the  old  word  eloJiim.  It  is  the  Hebrew  word  which  we 
translate  "  god."  What  precisely  is  the  elohim  ?  A  fetish 
that  becomes  an  idol,  an  idol  that  becomes  a  national  god, 
a  national  god  that  becomes  the  god  of  the  universe, 
awaiting  the  time  when  the  god  of  the  universe  becomes 
a  metaphysical  god.  The  First  Isaiah  is  at  the  stage  of 
the  god  of  the  universe. 

But  the  history  of  the  word  elohim  and  the  history  of 
the  god  Jahveh  are,  at  the  same  time,  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  soul  that  is  faithfully  reflected  therein.  A  Syrian 
tribe  that  becomes  a  small  people ;  a  small  people  that 
holds  aloof  in  an  extreme  and  fierce  patriotism,  finding  in 
it  the  strength  to  live  and  endure ;  and  now  a  handful  of 
men,  a  brotherhood  almost,  hardly  a  nation,  rather  a 
church,  that  thinks  itself  destined  to  rule  the  world,  and 
believes  so  strongly  in  its  destiny  that  it  will  eventually 
accomplish  it. 

That  again  is  in  the  First  Isaiah. 

Until  then  the  Jewish  soul  is  in  a  state  of  preparation  ; 
it  exists  only  potentially.  Even  in  Jeremiah  it  is  as  yet 
only  concentrating,  or  forming.  Jeremiah  had  been 
only  a  strenuous  return  to  the  policy  of  Esdras  and 
Deuteronomy,  become  democratic  as  it  confronted  the 
Hellenisation  of  the  aristocracy.  With  the  First  Isaiah 
Judaism  opens  out  towards  the  world.  The  prophecy  of 
Jeremiah  had  been  the  cry  of  alarm  of  a  man  who  saw 
the  foundations  of  the  Judaic  edifice  give  way.  Now  the 
Jewish  soul  revives ;  Hellenisation  has  not  disappeared  from 
the  aristocracy,  but  the  Jewish  people  have  renewed  their 
tradition.  Now,  for  the  first  time  in  the  Bible  and  in 
Jewish  history,  the  eyes  of  the  men  of  Jerusalem  are 
about  to  turn  beyond  Palestine.  For  the  first  time  the 
Jewish  soul  appears,  in  the  First  Isaiah,  of  the  character 
in  which  it  will,  under  a  Christian  form,  conquer  the 
world,  by  faith  in  its  election. 

And  already  the  First  Isaiah  tells,  without  ambiguity, 
how  this   extraordinary  conquest  will   be  accomplished. 


184     TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

Before  him  Deuteronomy,  the  early  prophets,  and 
Jeremiah  have,  one  after  the  other,  developed  the 
formula  of  the  famous  covenant.  The  First  Isaiah 
deduces  its  full  consequences ;  he  expounds  it  in  its  full 
amplitude.  There  is  a  synallagmatic  bargain  between 
Jahveh  and  Israel ;  if  Israel  is  faithful  to  Jahveh,  Jahveh 
will  give  it  the  world.  But  Israel  is  only  a  small  people 
amid  the  great  peoples  of  the  earth.  Syria  and  Egypt 
crush  it  with  their  formidable  power.  Wliat  armies  will 
Israel  lead  out  to  conquer  such  foes  ?  What  general 
will  lead  them  to  the  battle  ?  The  armies  will  be  the 
hosts  of  heaven,  and  Jahveh  will  be  their  general. 
Edom,  Moab,  and  Ammon  in  subjection.  Tyre  giving  up 
its  gold  like  an  aged  prostitute,  the  Ethiopians  bringing 
their  tribute,  Egypt  and  Syria  on  their  knees,  the  peoples 
of  the  earth  crowding  to  the  mountain  of  Jerusalem — 
all  that  will  be  the  personal  task  of  Jahveh. 

Behold,  the  day  of  Jahveh  cometh,  cruel  both  with 
wrath  and  fierce  anger,  to  lay  the  land  desolate  and 
destroy  the  enemies. 

The  stars  of  heaven,  even  the  Orions,  shall  not  give 
their  light ;  the  sun  shall  be  darkened  in  his  going  forth, 
and  the  moon  shall  not  cause  her  light  to  shine 

Therefore  I  will  shake  the  heavens,  and  the  earth  shall 
remove  out  of  her  place,  in  the  wrath  of  Jahveh  of  the 
Hosts,  and  in  the  day  of  his  fierce  anger. 

And  it  shall  be  as  the  chased  gazelle  and  as  a  sheep 
that  no  man  taketh  up :  they  shall  every  man  turn  to  his 
own  people,  and  flee  every  one  into  his  own  land. 

Every  one  that  is  found  shall  be  thrust  through,  and 
every  one  that  is  seized  shall  fall  by  the  sword. 

Their  children  also  shall  be  dashed  to  pieces  before 
their  eyes  ;  their  houses  shall  be  spoiled,  and  their  wives 
ravished 

For  Jahveh  will  have  mercy  on  Jacob,  and  will  yet 
choose  Israel 

And  the  house  of  Israel  shall  possess  the  peoples  for 
servants  and  handmaids ;  and  they  shall  take  them 
captives  whose  captives  they  were,  and  they  shall  rule 
over  their  oppressors.' 

^  Isaiah  xiii.  9-16  and  xiv.  1-2. 


THE  SECOND  ISAIAH  185 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day  that  Jahveh  shall 
punish  the  host  of  the  high  ones  that  are  on  high,  and 
the  kings  of  the  earth  upon  the  earth. 

And  they  shall  be  gathered  together  as  prisoners  are 
gathered  in  the  pit,  and  shall  be  shut  up  in  the  prison, 
and  after  many  days  shall  they  be  punished/ 

And  the  multitude  of  thy  foes  shall  be  like  small  dust, 
and  the  multitude  of  the  terrible  ones  shall  be  as  the  chaff 
that  passeth  away ;  yea,  it  shall  be  at  an  instant 
suddenly. 

Thou  shalt  be  visited  of  Jahveh  of  the  Hosts  with 
thunder,  and  with  earthquake,  and  with  great  noise,  with 
storm  and  tempest,  and  the  flame  of  devouring  lire. 

And  the  multitude  of  all  the  nations  that  march  against 
thee,  and  all  they  that  fight  against  thee,  shall  be  as  a 
dream,  a  vision  of  the  night. 

And  it  shall  even  be  as  when  an  hungry  man  dreameth, 
and,  behold,  he  eateth ;  but  he  awaketh,  and  his  soul  is 
empty  :  or  as  when  a  thirsty  man  dreameth,  and,  behold, 
he  drinketh  ;  but  he  awaketh,  and,  behold,  he  is  faint, 
and  his  soul  is  athirst:  so  shall  the  multitude  of  all  the 
nations  be  that  march  against  mount  Zion.^ 

When  such  a  hope  becomes,  not  the  theme  of  rhetorical 
effusions,  not  the  outworn  phrase  of  a  materialistic  clergy, 
but  the  flesh  and  blood  of  a  people,  however  lowly  it  be 
in  the  heart  of  the  hills,  it  is  a  formidable  people. 


§  3.  The  Second  Isaiah. 

The  work  of  the  prophets,  however,  was  not  yet 
complete.  Another  voice  was  to  be  heard,  introducing  a 
new  aspect  of  the  evolution  of  Judaism.  This  is  the 
Second  Isaiah,  the  best  known,  the  most  Christian,  of  the 
prophets. 

A  connecting  link  between  the  prophets  and  the 
psalms,  the  Second  Isaiah  is  already  the  consoler  of  the 
downcast.  The  imperialism  of  the  Second  Isaiah  is  an 
imperialism  of  the  downcast. 

The  book  of  the  Second  Isaiah  is  a  collection  of  odes. 

'  Isaiah  xxiv.  21-22.  ^  Isaiah  xxix.  5-8. 


186    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPEEIALIST  KEVIVAL 

The  writer,  however,  was  unable  to  speak  in  his  own 
name ;  pseudonymity  is  the  invariable  condition  of 
Hebrew  literature.  He  presented  his  work  as  a  continu- 
ation of  the  work  of  the  old  prophet  Isaiah.  A  book  that 
had  not  the  paternity  of  some  ancient  name  would  not 
have  been  received  at  Jerusalem.  The  literary  artifice 
he  used  was  this  :  the  aged  prophet  Isaiah,  in  the  time  of 
Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah,  is  represented  as  consoling  the 
Jewish  people  in  its  misfortunes,  and  prophesying  the 
end  of  the  Babylonian  captivity  and  the  restoration  of 
Jerusalem  by  Cyrus,  in  the  time  of  Zorobabel.  In  reality, 
however,  it  is  not  to  the  misfortunes  of  the  days  of 
Hezekiah  or  of  the  Deportation  that  the  writer  offers  his 
consolation,  but  to  the  evils  of  the  present  time.  It  is 
not  the  end  of  the  Babylonian  captivity  that  the  writer 
announces,  but  the  return  of  the  exiles  from  all  parts  of 
the  Dispersion ;  it  is  not  the  throwing  off  of  the  yoke  of 
the  king  of  Babylon,  but  the  end  of  the  Egyptian  and 
Syrian  servitude ;  it  is  not  the  restoration  of  Jerusalem  in 
the  days  of  Zorobabel,  but  its  future  glorification,  when 
the  day  of  Jahveh  shall  come. 

Like  all  the  prophets  and  all  the  Jewish  writers,  the 
Second  Isaiah  develops  in  an  almost  unique  way  the 
classic  theme  of  the  evils  which  are  the  chastisement 
inflicted  by  Jahveh  on  the  guilty  Jews,  and  the  rewards 
which  the  god  promises  to  his  people  when  it  returns  to 
fidelity.  But  the  evils  deplored  by  the  Second  Isaiah  are 
no  longer  the  same  as  those  that  the  early  prophets 
lamented,  and  of  which  they  held  the  threat  over  the 
head  of  their  contemporaries.  Formerly  they  spoke  of 
invasion,  burning,  and  deportation :  now  the  theme  is 
that  Jerusalem,  with  all  its  pride,  is  a  slave,  that  the 
Jewish  colonies  are  humbled  in  the  midst  of  the  goim,  and 
that  the  heads  of  the  Jerusalem  aristocracy  are  bad 
shepherds  who  betray  the  flock. 

To  whom,  indeed,  is  the  Second  Isaiah  speaking  ?  To 
"  him  whom  man    despiseth,   to  him  whom  the  nation 


a:SE  SECOND  ISAIAH  l8? 

abhorreth,  to  the  servant  of  rulers,"  to  "  the  prisoners," 
to  "  them  that  are  in  darkness,"  to  those  that  hunger  and 
thirst,  to  those  whom  the  mirage  and  the  sun  cause  to 
suffer,' 

What  does  he  say  to  them  ? 

Fear  ye  not  the  reproach  of  men,  neither  be  ye  afraid 
of  their  revihngs :  for  [he  adds]  the  moth  shall  eat  them 
up  like  a  garment,  and  the  worm  shall  eat  them  like  wool.^ 

Elsewhere  there  is  question  of  the  oppressors  of  Israel, 
who  said  to  it : — 

Bow  down,  that  we  may  go  over  ;  and  Israel  made  of 
its  back  as  the  ground,  and  as  the  street  to  them  that 
went  over.** 

This  people  is  robbed  and  spoiled,  he  says  again/ 

Later  he  speaks  to  those  "that  thirst"  and  to  those 
"  that  have  no  money."  * 

The  Second  Isaiah  belongs  to  the  end  of  the  third 
century,  and  is  contemporary  with  the  king  of  Syria 
Antiochus  the  Great.  The  abominable  Joseph,  son  of 
Tobias,  is  dead,  but  his  sons  amply  fill  his  place ;  one  of 
them,  Hyrcanus,  commits  the  scandals  of  his  father 
tenfold  worse.  One  of  the  odes  of  the  Second  Isaiah®  is 
evidently  a  diatribe,  with  transparent  allusions,  against 
the  new  farmer  of  the  taxes,  the  "  son  of  the  sorceress, 
the  seed  of  the  adulterer  and  the  whore,"  who  enriches 
himself  "at  the  cost  of  Israel,"  which  has  "rebelled"; 
who  builds  himself  "a  strong  place  on  the  mountain," 
offers  "  presents  to  the  king  [of  Egypt]  and  sends 
messengers,"  and  angers  Jahveh  by  "the  iniquity  of  his 
covetousness."^ 

The  prophet  returns  unwearyingly  to  the  exactions  of 
the  aristocracy. 

But  the  Second  Isaiah  addresses  himself  to  the  exiles 
as  much  as  to  the  Jews  who  remain  in  Jerusalem.     The 

1  Isaiah  xlix.  7,  9,  and  10.  ^  jsaiah  li.  7-8.  =*  Isaiah  li.  23. 

*  Isaiah  xlii.  22.  ^  Isaiahlv.l.  ^  Isaiah  \\n. 

'  Isaiah  Ivii.  3-5,  7,  9,  17. 


188    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

third  century  is  the  period  of  the  great  departure  of  the 
Jews  for  the  towns  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  thought 
of  the  poet  goes  out  unceasingly  to  the  miserable 
emigrants  who  languish,  in  the  depths  of  the  ghettos,  as 
they  turn  towards  the  city  of  their  god.  The  originality 
of  the  Second  Isaiah  is  that  he  is  a  consoler  of  the 
afflicted  even  more  than  a  judge  threatening  the  guilty. 

Comfort,  comfort  my  people,  saith  your  god.' 

Thus  does  he  open  the  series  of  his  poems. 

The  famous  poem  of  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows "  is  a 
summary  of  the  lamentable  picture,  on  which  the  Second 
Isaiah  chiefly  dwells,  of  the  humiliations  of  the  Jewish 
people ;  the  passage  is  one  of  the  best  known  in  the 
Bible,  yet  it  is  still  one  of  the  least  understood. 

We  must  imagine  the  men  of  Jerusalem  gathering 
round  the  temple,  swathed  in  their  loose  mantles,  during 
long  days  that  are  filled  only  with  meditations  in  common, 
prayer,  political  agitation,  anger  against  the  oppressors, 
and  dreams  of  the  future.  What  do  the  great  odes  of 
the  prophetic  writers  do,  in  this  gloomy  Asiatic  forum, 
but  legitimise  with  the  authority  of  the  national  god 
their  anger  and  their  desires  ? 

One  day  the  poem  of  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows  "  spreads 
among  this  crowd,  already  become  fanatical.  It  is,  it 
seems,  the  work  of  the  old  prophet  Isaiah.  They  do  not 
think  of  disputing  it ;  the  brain  of  the  ancient  Jews  was 
not  open  to  critical  questions.  And  this  old  poem — 
several  centuries  old,  they  say — seems  to  harmonise 
marvellously  with  all  the  restlessness  of  their  souls 

He  hath  grown  up  as  a  shoot,  as  a  tender  plant  out  of 
a  dry  ground  ;  he  hath  no  form,  nor  comeliness  ;  he  hath 
no  beauty  that  we  should  desire  him. 

Despised  and  the  least  of  men,  a  man  of  sorrows  and 
acquainted  with  grief,  like  unto  him  from  whom  we  turn 
our  faces,  he  was  despised,  and  we  esteemed  him  not. 

Surely  he  hath  borne  our   maladies,  and  carried  our 

'  Isaiah  xl.  1. 


THE  SECOND  ISAIAH  189 

sorrows ;  yet  we  did  esteem  him  stricken,  smitten  of  god, 
and  afflicted. 

But  he  was  wounded  for  our  rebellions,  he  was  bruised 
for  our  iniquities ;  the  chastisement,  the  price  of  our 
peace,  was  upon  him  ;  and  with  his  stripes  we  are  healed. 

And  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray ;  we  have  turned 
every  one  to  his  own  way ;  and  Jahveh  hath  laid  on  him 
the  iniquity  of  us  all. 

He  is  maltreated,  and  he  humbles  himself ;  he  opens 
not  his  mouth ;  as  a  lamb  that  is  brought  to  the  slaughter, 
and  as  a  dumb  sheep  before  her  shearers,  he  openeth  not 
his  mouth. 

He  is  delivered  to  captivity  and  judgment,  and,  of  his 
generation,  who  understandeth  that  he  is  cut  off  out  of 
the  land  of  the  living,  and  stricken  for  the  rebellions  of 
my  people.^ 

This  poem  has  been  the  successive  theme  of  all 
theologies.  Traditional  theology  has  seen  in  it  a  predic- 
tion of  the  Messiah,  Jesus ;  liberal  Protestant  interpreters 
have  read  in  it  the  doctrine  of  redemption ;  even  the 
most  independent  of  the  critics  have  agreed  to  recognise 
in  it  Israel  atoning  for  the  sins  of  the  v^orld.  The 
Hebrew  text,  however,  does  not  say  that  Israel  was 
smitten  for  the  iniquities  of  other  peoples,  but  for  its  own 
iniquities.  We  will  give  an  example  of  the  incredible 
errors  into  which  the  best  commentators  may  be  led  by 
preconceived  ideas.  The  Man  of  Sorrows  is  smitten, 
says  Isaiah,  "for  our  iniquities,"  and  the  critic  explains: 

"Yes,  our   iniquities but    it    is    the    goim   who    are 

speaking ;  only  the  prophet  has  forgotten  to  tell  us." 

The  iniquities  expiated  by  the  Man  of  Sorrows  are  the 
iniquities  of  Israel ;  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  that  is  to  say, 
Israel  itself,  atones  for  its  own  faults.  The  idea  of  Israel 
atoning  for  the  sins  of  the  world  will  occur  to  no  one 
before  St.  Paul ;  it  is  impossible  before  the  Christian  era. 
Israel  is  humbled  because  it  has  sinned  against  Jahveh  ; 
if  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  if  Israel,  is  a  redeemer,  he  is  a 

*  Isaiah  liii.  2-8. 


190    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

redeemer  only  of  himself;  we  return  once  more  to  the 
old  familiar  idea  of  the  covenant. 

But  Jahveh  now  smites  his  people  with  a  new  humilia- 
tion. The  evils  with  which  the  early  prophets  threatened 
Israel  were  those  of  a  vanquished  people  ;  those  deplored 
by  the  prophet  of  the  end  of  the  third  century  are  the 
ignominies  of  oppression.  In  Jeremiah  the  sword  was 
held  over  the  head  of  Israel :  now  it  is  the  stick. 

Such  is  the  meaning  of  the  "  Man  of  Sorrows." 

Round  the  humiliation  of  the  Jews  the  prophet  brings 
again  the  series  of  ancient  ideas.  He  enumerates  the 
faults,  the  desertions,  the  apostasies  of  Israel.  Then,  to 
the  men  of  Jerusalem  who  are  listening  to  him,  he 
promises,  if  Israel  returns  and  keeps  faithful,  the  same 
rewards  that  the  First  Isaiah  has  already  conjured  up 
like  a  mirage  before  their  eyes,  and  he  opens  out  the 
perspective  of  the  glories  to  come. 

Some  have  seen  in  the  Second  Isaiah  a  tender  soul  who 
dreams  of  pacific  conquest,  and  summons  all  peoples  to 
share  the  delight  of  the  kingdom  of  Jahveh.  Alas!  this 
is  how  the  tender  soul  of  the  Second  Isaiah  invited  the 
Jews  gathered  in  the  precincts  of  the  temple  to  fraternise 
with  the  goim  : — 

Come  down,  and  sit  in  the  dust,  0  virgin,  daughter  of 
Babylon !  Sit  on  the  ground ;  there  is  no  throne,  O 
daughter  of  the  Chaldaeans  ;  for  thou  shalt  no  more  be 
called  tender  and  delicate. 

Take  the  millstones  and  grind  flour ;  uncover  thy  locks, 
and  make  bare  the  leg,  uncover  the  thigh,  pass  over  the 
rivers. 

Thy  nakedness  shall  be  uncovered,  yea,  thy  shame  shall 
be  seen.    I  will  take  vengeance,  and  I  shall  spare  none 

These  two  things  shall  come  to  thee  in  a  moment,  in 
one  day  :  the  loss  of  children,  and  widowhood  ;  they  shall 
come  upon  thee,  in  spite  of  the  multitude  of  thy 
sorceries 

There  shall  come  an  evil  upon  thee  of  which  thou  shalt 
not  know  the  rising ;  and  mischief  shall  fall  upon  thee 
that   thou  shalt  not   be  able  to  put  off;  and  desolation 


THE  SECOND  ISAIAH  191 

shall   come   upon   thee   suddenly  which   thou  shalt   not 

foresee 

Behold,  they  are  as  stubble,  the  fire  burns  them  :  they 
shall  not  deliver  themselves  from  the  power  of  the  flame.' 

Elsewhere : 

And  I  will  feed  them  that  oppress  thee  with  their  own 
flesh,  and  they  shall  be  drunken  with  their  own  blood  as 
with  the  juice  of  the  grape.'^ 

Later  : — 

Behold,  I  have  taken  out  of  thine  hand  the  cup  of 
dizziness,  the  cup  of  my  fury  ;  thou  shalt  no  more  drink 
it  again,  but  I  will  put  it  into  the  hand  of  them  that 
afflict  thee.^ 

Jahveh  hath  put  on  the  garment  of  vengeance,  and 
hath  clad  himself  with  jealousy  as  a  cloke. 

According  to  their  deeds,  accordingly  he  will  repay  ;  to 
the  islands  he  will  repay  recompense. 

So  they  shall  fear  the  name  of  Jahveh  from  the  west, 
and  his  gloi'y  fi'om  the  east ;  when  the  enemy  shall  come 
in  like  a  flood,  the  spirit  of  Jahveh  shall  put  him  to  flight.'* 

I  have  trodden  the  peoples  in  my  anger,  and  trampled 
them  in  my  fury,  and  their  blood  hath  been  sprinkled 
upon  my  garments,  and  I  have  stained  all  my  raiment. 

For  the  day  of  vengeance  is  in  mine  heart.* 

And  the  Jews  enfevered,  with  anger  and  despair, 
repeated  with  their  prophet,  as  they  saw  pass  the  proud 
aristocrats  whom  they  accused  of  denying  their  god  and 
their  country: — 

I  number  you  to  the  sword,  saith  Jahveh,  and  ye  shall 
all  bow  down  to  the  slaughter ;  because  when  I  called,  ye 
did  not  answer  ;  when  I  spake,  ye  did  not  hear ;  but  did 
evil  before  mine  eyes,  and  did  choose  that  wherein  I 
delighted  not. 

Therefore  thus  saith  the  lord  Jahveh  : — Behold,  my 
servants  shall  eat,  but  ye  shall  be  hungry ;  behold,  my 
servants  shall  drink,  but  ye  shall  be  thirsty ;  behold,  my 
servants  shall  rejoice,  but  ye  shall  be  ashamed;  behold, 
my  servants  shall  sing  for  joy  of  heart,  but  ye  shall  cry 
for  sorrow  of  heart,  and  shall  howl  for  vexation  of  spirit.^ 

'  Isaiah  Tdvii.  1-14.  ^  Isaiah  xlix.  26.  °  Isaiahli. 22. 

■*  Isaiahlix.  17-19.  *  Isaiah  Ixiii.  S-i.  "  Isaiah  lx\.  12-14. 


192     TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

The  hero  of  the  Second  Isaiah  (who  will  also  be  the  hero 
of  the  psalms)  is  designated  by  the  words  ehed  Jahveh, 
which  the  Christian  translations  have  rendered  the 
"  Servant  of  God  " — that  is  to  say,  the  servant  of  Jahveh. 
It  is  important  to  determine  the  precise  meaning.  The 
Hebrew  word  ebed  has,  in  the  Bible,  a  meaning  which 
varies  between  slave,  serf,  servant,  and  domestic.  The 
Mosaic  law  distinguishes  between  the  Hebrew  ebed,  who 
is  a  kind  of  half-serf  and  half-servant,  and  the  Canaanite 
ebed,  who  is  a  pagan  slave  ;  but  Moses  is  at  the  same 
time  said  to  be  the  ebed  of  Jahveh.  In  the  Second  Isaiah 
ebed  of  Jahveh  evidently  means  the  Jewish  people. 
Jahveh  is  the  sovereign,  the  supreme  king,  of  the  Jewish 
people,  and  the  expression,  ebed  of  Jahveh,  means  simply 
subject  of  Jahveh ;  the  Jewish  people  is  the  subject  of 
Jahveh,  as  all  peoples  of  the  East  are  the  subjects — that  is 
to  say,  the  slaves — of  their  monarch.  The  subject  of 
Jahveh  is  the  slave  of  Jahveh.  The  ebed  Jahveh  is  the 
sombre  group  of  the  men  of  Jerusalem  who  wander 
about  the  temple,  poor,  downcast,  and  proud.  The 
Second  Isaiah  means  that  the  Jewish  people,  the  slave  of 
its  king  Jahveh,  will  become  master  of  the  world. 

Even  more  precisely  than  the  First,  the  Second  Isaiah 
predicts,  to  the  audience  which  he  fills  with  his  halluci- 
nation, the  submission  of  the  world  to  the  Jews.  He 
admits  no  escape  from  the  dilemma  :  to  submit  or  perish. 
It  is  a  pacific  ideal,  on  condition  that  the  world  comes  to 
its  knees.  And  to  his  unhappy  fellows,  oppressed  and 
humbled  a  dozen  times,  the  poet  repeats  mercilessly  these 
maddening  promises  : — 

The  sons  of  strangers  shall  build  up  thy  walls,  and  their 
kings  shall  minister  unto  thee 

The  nation  and  kingdom  that  will  not  serve  thee  shall 
perish,  yea,  those  nations  shall  be  utterly  wasted. 

The  glory  of  Lebanon  shall  come  unto  thee,  the  fir  tree, 
the  pine  tree,  and  the  box  together,  to  beautify  the  place 
of  my  sanctuary ;  and  I  will  make  the  place  of  my  feet 
glorious 


THE  SECOND  ISAIAH  193 

The  sons  of  them  that  afflicted  thee  shall  come  bending 
unto  thee  ;  and  all  they  that  despised  thee  shall  bow 
themselves  down  at  the  soles  of  thy  feet 

Thy  people  shall   inherit  the  land   for  ever I    am 

Jahveh,  and  I  will  hasten  these  things  in  their  time.^ 

Indefatigable,  the  fierce  tribune  lashes  his  miserable 
audience  into  fanaticism: — 

And  strangers  shall  stand  and  feed  your  flocks,  and  the 
sons  of  the  alien  shall  be  your  plowmen  and  your  vine- 
dressers. 

But  ye  shall  be  named  the  Priests  of  Jahveh ;  men 
shall  call  you  the  servants  of  your  god ;  ye  shall  eat  the 
riches  of  the  nations,  and  in  their  glory  shall  ye  boast 
yourselves. 

For  your  shame  ye  shall  have  double,  and  for  confusion 
ye  shall  rejoice  in  your  portion.^ 

You  ask  how  all  that  will  come  about  ? 

Behold,  Jahveh  will  come  with  fire,  and  with  his 
chariots  like  a  whirlwind  ;  he  maketh  a  fire  of  his  anger, 
and  of  his  threat  a  flame. 

For  Jahveh  will  render  his  judgment  with  fire ;  he  will 
smite  all  flesh  with  his  sword ;  and  the  slain  of  Jahveh 
shall  be  without  number.'' 

In  that  day  all  the  Jews,  scattered  in  the  humiliation  of 
the  colonies  amid  the  goim,  will  be  brought  back  in 
triumph  to  Zion.  It  is  expressed  in  the  figure  of  the 
return  from  the  Deportation ;  but  the  Second  Isaiah  is  so 
far  from  thinking  of  the  Babylonian  captivity  that  he 
summons  the  exiles,  not  merely  from  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates,  but  from  the  west  and  the  south'* — that  is  to 
say,  from  Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  and  from  the  midst  of  all 
nations.*  The  imperialist  promises  are  for  the  Jews  of 
the  Dispersion  just  as  much  as  for  those  of  Judeea. 

The  world  will  be  subject  to  the  Jews,  and  the  nations 
will  pay  tribute. 

They   shall   bring   gold   and   incense the   ships   of 

Tarshish  shall  come  with  their  silver  and  their  gold. 

1  Isaiah  Ix.  10-22.         ^  jsaiahlxi.  5-7.        ^  Isaiah  Ixvi.  15-16. 
*  Isaiah  xliii.  5-6.         ^  Isaiah  Ixvi.  20.        '^  Isaiah  Ix.  6-9 . 

O 


194    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPEEIALIST  EEVIVAL 

The  Jews  shall  be  masters  of  the  earth. 

The  time  is  come  to  gather  all  nations  and  tongues, 
that  they  may  come,  and  see  my  glory. 

And  I  will  set  a  sign  among  you,  and  I  will  send  those 
that  escape  of  you  unto  the  nations,  to  Tarshish,  Pul,  and 
Lud,  that  draw  the  bow,  to  Tubal,  and  Javan,  to  the  isles 
afar  off,  that  have  not  heard  my  fame,  neither  have  seen 
my  glory  ;  and  they  shall  declare  my  glory  among  the 
nations. 

And  they  shall  bring  all  your  brethren,  for  an  offering 
unto  Jahveh,  out  of  all  nations  upon  horses,  and  in 
chariots,  and  in  litters,  and  upon  mules,  and  upon 
dromedaries,  to  my  holy  mountain,  to  Jerusalem,  saith 
Jahveh.^ 

And  the  last  touch  is  : — 

They  shall  look  upon  the  carcases  of  the  men  that  have 
rebelled  against  me ;  for  their  worm  shall  not  die,  neither 
shall  their  fire  be  quenched,  and  they  shall  be  an  abhorring 
unto  all  flesh.^ 


§  4.  The  Internationalisation  of  the  Prophetic  Books. 
The  Age  of  the  Prophets. 

We  now  know  the  work  of  the  writers  whose  voice  was 
to  sound  in  the  ears  of  humanity  for  so  many  ages,  and 
we  see  that  all  they  did  was  to  reconstitute,  democratising 
it,  the  Jewish  nationalism,  or  imperialism,  that  had  been 
created  before  them  by  Esdras  and  the  Mosaic  books. 

As  we  have  said,  we  attack  no  religion,  and  we  defend 
none.  The  aim  of  the  historian  is  to  discover  why  and 
how  certain  books  arose,  which  afterwards  became  sacred 
books.  We  have  explained  how  the  books  of  Moses, 
which  were  national  and  nationalist  works,  became 
international  books  ;  we  have  now  to  explain  how  the 
books  of  the  writers  called  prophets — democratic  as  well 
as  national  and  nationalist  books — were  internationalised 
in  their  turn. 

^  Isaiah  Ixvi.  18-20.  ^  Isaiah  Ixvi.  24. 


INTERNATIONALISATION  OF  PROPHETIC  BOOKS  195 

Twenty-four  centuries  ago  there  arose,  in  one  of  the 
smallest  States  of  Western  Asia,  certain  men,  an  outcome 
of  the  most  pressing  need  of  the  circumstances,  who 
preached  to  their  contemporaries  the  cult  of  their  country 
and  hatred  of  their  aristocracy. 

Internationalism  has  converted  these  men  into  : — 

1.  The  apostles  of  the  conversion  of  the  world  to 
monotheism  ; 

2.  The  protagonists  of  justice. 
History,  however,  shows  that  : — 

1.  The  Jewish  prophets  preached,  not  the  conversion 
of  the  world,  but  its  conquest  and  submission  ; 

2.  The  Jewish  prophets  were  the  protagonists,  not  of 
justice,  but  of  the  claims  of  their  people  and  their  political 
party. 

The  work  of  the  Jewish  people,  say  the  Jewish  and 
Christian  orthodoxies,  was  to  teach  true  religion  to  the 
world.*  Recently  Isidore  Loeb,  in  a  work  published  after 
his  death,'^  and  M.  Maurice  Vernes,  in  most  of  his  later 
works,  have  revived  the  theory  of  the  "  proselytism  of  the 
prophets."  According  to  them,  the  Jews  dreamed,  not  of 
conquest  and  submission,  but  of  the  conversion  of  foreign 
nations. 

The  analysis  of  the  prophecies  of  the  two  Isaiahs  has 
fully  shown,  and  the  analysis  of  the  psalms  and  apocalypses 
will  constantly  show,  what  kind  of  "conversion"  there 
was  in  the  minds  of  the  Jews. 

In  what  did  the  "  conversion "  of  foreign  nations 
consist  ?  First,  to  obey  the  Jews ;  secondly,  to  pay 
tribute  to  them.  One  must  not  be  deceived  by  the 
religious  form  that  the  Jewish  claims  took.  The  Jewish 
State  is  a  State  ruled  by  priests,  in  which  the  prophets 
aspire  to  replace  the  old  clerical  aristocracy  by  a  clerical 
democracy.     Though  framed  by  the  priests,  the  Jewish 

^  See  Munk,  La  Palestine,  commencement  of  Book  III. 
^  La  littirature des pauvres  dans  la  Bible;  Paris,  1892. 


196    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  EEVIVAL 

law  is  a  national  law ;  the  taxes  paid  to  the  Jewish 
clergy  are  taxes  paid  to  the  Jewish  Government.  A 
purely  religious  law,  in  the  sense  that  we  give  to  the 
expression — that  is  to  say,  a  purely  moral  law — is  an 
impossible  idea  in  Judaea.  So  monstrous  an  anachronism 
robs  Jewish  history  of  its  real  features ;  the  glory  of  the 
Jewish  people  is  that  it,  the  lowest  people  of  the  East, 
came  to  dream,  like  the  Roman  people,  of  material 
conquest,  of  the  political  submission  of  the  world. 

The  Romans  sent  legions  and  administrators  to 
conquer  the  world.  The  Jews  relied  on  Jahveh  and  the 
hosts  of  heaven,  Jahveh  Sebaot.  Jewish  "  proselytism  " 
differs  from  Roman  "proselytism"  only  in  the  choice  of 
means.  On  both  sides  the  design  is  to  conquer  foreign 
nations  ;  and  the  same  dilemma  is  proposed  to  the  world 
— submission  (conversion,  if  one  insists  on  the  word)  or 
extermination.  There  is  no  ambiguity ;  the  two  Isaiahs 
and,  later,  the  psalms  and  apocalypses  repeat  it  invariably; 
if  the  nations  be  not  "  converted,"  they  shall  be  exter- 
minated. 

In  the  period  of  the  Isaiahs,  as  in  the  time  of  Deutero- 
nomy, Jewish  nationalism,  surrounded  by  the  most 
formidable  dangers,  drew  itself  up  ferociously  to  face 
other  peoples.  In  the  latter  case  the  horizon  is  limited, 
in  the  former  case  it  is  broad ;  but  in  the  third  century 
just  as  much  as  in  the  fourth  the  idea  is  to  reduce 
foreign  nations,  or  to  perish.  Nothing  is  more  human  ; 
nothing  is  simpler.  Internationalism,  reading  "  conver- 
sion" where  it  finds  "conquest,"  puts  a  dogma  in  the 
place  of  history. 

That  the  prophets  were  the  protagonists  of  justice  in 
"-  the  world  is  another  error  that  we  have  exposed.  Even 
the  most  independent  commentators  of  to-day  praise  the 
prophets  for  having  claimed  justice ;  some  for  having 
created  justice.  Did  not  James  Darmesteter,  in  1891, 
propose  to  France  and  the  world  a  return  to  the  Jewish 
prophets?     History  should   expose   this   effect   of   inter- 


INTEENATIONALISATION  OF  PEOPHETIC  BOOKS  197 

nationalisation,  for  the  idea  of  justice  was  never  more 
cruelly  denied  than  by  the  men  of  the  Jerusalem 
democracy. 

In  what  does  justice  consist  ? 

In  this :  to  render  to  every  man  what  belongs  to  him. 
Suum  cuique. 

Justice  has  been  represented  with  scales  in  her  hands. 
She  is  devoid  of  passion,  and  disinterested ;  without 
passion,  that  is  to  say,  she  obeys  neither  hatred,  nor  love, 
nor  anger,  nor  fear,  nor  vengeance,  nor  envy ;  dis- 
interested, that  is  to  say,  the  thought  of  his  own 
advantage  never  whispers  in  the  ear  of  the  judge. 

Whence  comes  the  sentiment  of  justice?  From  an 
equal  consciousness  of  rights  and  duties ;  of  duties  that 
come  of  rights,  and  rights  that  impose  duties. 

A  human,  contingent  thing,  depending  on  place  and 
time,  differing  in  different  places,  overturned  by  circum- 
stances, speaking  one  language  one  side  of  the  Pyrenees 
and  another  language  the  other,  justice  has  nothing  but 
the  name  in  common  with  the  metaphysical  idol  imagined 
by  certain  philosophers,  and  especially  worshipped  since 
the  days  of  Kant.  Justice,  a  quality  of  an  essentially 
practical  order,  a  purely  political  virtue,  an  empirical  and 
relative  fact,  is  a  Roman  conception  ;  the  allegory  of  the 
scales  is  Roman ;  siiu77i  cuique  is  a  Roman  device ; 
"  Justitia  est  constans  ac  perpetua  voluntas  jus  suum 
cuique  tribuendi." 

The  Romans  found  the  sentiment  of  justice  in  the 
consciousness  of  their  rights  and  their  duties.  Masters 
of  the  world  (that  is  their  right),  they  owe  justice  to  the 
world  (that  is  their  duty).  The  ideal  Roman  is  the  judge 
without  hatred  and  without  love,  without  anger  or  fear, 
without  vengeance  or  envy.  The  ideal  Roman,  did  we 
say?  More  correctly,  the  ideal  of  the  Roman.  The 
definition  of  justice  remains,  after  two  thousand  years, 
the  definition  of  the  word  justitia. 

The  Romans  arose  to  that  height  because  they  were  a 


198    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPEEIALIST  EEVIVAL 

military  people,  and  therefore  subject  to  a  hierarchy  and 
a  discipline,  and  a  political  people,  and  therefore  careful 
to  establish  their  domination  on  unshakable  bases.  The 
Jews,  a  people  of  exalted  fanatics,  impassioned  by  unin- 
terrupted humiliations,  were  eternally  incapable  of  that 
effort  of  serene  moderation  which  justice  implies. 

The  prophets  are  the  spokesmen  of  a  people  and  a 
party ;  they  demand  every  advantage  for  this  people  and 
party.  The  idea  of  rendering  to  the  goim  what  belongs 
to  the  goim,  or  to  the  aristocrats  what  belongs  to  the 
aristocrats,  is  at  the  very  antipodes  of  the  thought  of  the 
prophets.  Suum  cuiqiie,  say  the  Latins ;  everything  for 
us,  say  the  prophets.  Is  there  a  single  passage  in  which 
the  prophets  do  not  demand  the  condemnation  of  their 
opponents  ? 

Justice  renders  even  to  the  enemy  that  to  which  he 
has  a  right.  The  prophets  are  impassioned  tribunes  who 
devote  the  goim  and  the  aristocrats  to  extermination, 
unless  they  come  to  their  knees.  As  patriots  and  dema- 
gogues they  were  true  to  their  parts.  But  what  common 
measure  is  there  between  the  demands  of  a  people  and  a 
party  and  the  serene  concession  of  his  right  to  every  man  ? 

The  very  idea  did  not  enter  their  heads.  The  transla- 
tions, which  always  have  a  pious  bias,  render  as  "  justice  " 
a  certain  number  of  Hebrew  words,  not  one  of  which  has 
that  meaning. 

Mishpat  properly  means  judgment,  sentence  ;  when  the 
prophets  invoke  mishpat,  they  purely  and  simply  call 
upon  their  opponents  the  sentence  of  Jahveh — in  other 
words,  chastisement. 

Let  judgment,  says  Amos,  roll  on  like  the  waves  of  a 
river,  and  justice  flow  like  an  unceasing  torrent.'  He 
means  the  judgment  that  will  condemn  our  opponents — 
the  justice  that  will  grant  us  all  our  claims. 

Sadiq,  the  just,  means  the  man  who  lives  honestly  or 

*  Amos  V.  24, 


INTEENATIONALISATION  OF  PEOPHETIC  BOOKS  199 

piously ;  it  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  meaning  of 
Justus. 

Mishar  and  naJcohah,  straightness,  are  much  the  same 
as  honesty  and  piety ;  here,  again,  there  is  nothing  of 
justitia. 

The  goi7n  and  the  aristocrats  who  oppress  and  despoil 
the  Jewish  people  stand  for  the  rich  man  oppressing  and 
despoiling  the  poor.  The  prophets  who  dream  of  exter- 
minating or  bringing  to  their  knees  the  aristocrats  and 
the  goim  are  the  poor  man  oppressing  and  despoiling  the 
rich.  Behind  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  do  I  perceive 
the  august  shade  of  justice. 

It  may  be  objected  that  justice  is  employed  in  protecting 
the  weak.  But  is  it  also  employed  in  exterminating  the 
powerful,  in  making  outlaws  of  those  who  dissent? 
Serenity,  disinterestedness,  gravity,  the  stifling  of  hatred, 
the  overcoming  of  anger,  the  abandonment  of  vengeance, 
a  generous  concession  of  rights  in  correspondence  with 
duties — not  one  of  these  characters  of  justice  is  found  in 
the  prophetic  books.  Everything  in  them  is  national  and 
democratic  ;  it  is  the  glory  and  the  inspiration  of  the 
books.  , 

At  the  root  of  the  Jewish  books  is  the  eminently 
nationalist  idea  of  the  choice  of  Israel.  Jahveh,  the 
most  unjust  of  gods,  has  chosen  the  Jewish  people,  not 
on  account  of  their  merits,  as  the  Bible  says  unceasingly, 
but  by  his  own  free  choice  ;  he  has  chosen  the  Jewish 
people,  and  rejected  the  others.  Christian  theology  will 
convert  this  iniquity  into  the  dogma  of  predestination  and 
grace.  The  eminently  democratic  idea  that  the  popular 
party  alone  represents  Israel  is  not  less  fundamental  in 
the  prophets.  Among  the  Jews  the  prophets  separate  the 
men  of  their  party  from  the  men  of  the  opposite  party ; 
the  choice  of  Israel  becomes  in  the  prophets  the  choice  of 
the  democratic  party  of  Jerusalem ;  Israel  represents,  in 
the  prophets,  merely  the  Jews  of  the  prophetic  party. 

We    must   not   read   it   "justice";    we   must   read    it 


200    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

"  claims " — claims  that  are  more  or  less  authorised ; 
claims  of  a  people,  the  Jewish  people  ;  of  a  party,  the 
democracy. 

Internationalisation  is,  as  we  said,  the  art  of  appro- 
priating words  that  had  a  concrete  meaning  in  their  time 
and  place,  and  investing  these  words  with  a  general,  and 
purely  moral,  signification. 

The  history  of  ancient  Judaism  and  primitive  Chris- 
tianity may  be  summed  up  thus  :  a  national  and  nationalist 
fact  which  becomes  an  international  fact.  The  task  of  the 
historian  of  Judaism  is  to  detect  the  ancient  national  and 
nationalist  fact  under  the  modern  international  fact.  The 
evolution  of  the  Jewish  people  should  be  studied  just  as 
coldly  as  the  evolution  of  any  other  people  of  ancient 
Asia. 

On  whatever  side  we  look,  we  cannot  find  in  the 
prophets,  any  more  than  in  the  rest  of  the  Bible,  anything 
else  but  national  works,  the  outcome  of  the  need  of  a 
definite  period.  At  the  root  of  the  prophetic  books  there 
is  the  covenant  agreed  upon  between  Jahveh  and  Israel. 
The  obligation  of  Israel  is  that  it  be  faithful  to  Jahveh ; 
the  obligation  of  Jahveh  is,  on  account  of  this  fidelity,  to 
give  the  world  to  Israel. 

But  in  what  does  this  fidelity  to  Jahveh,  which  is 
demanded  of  Israel,  consist  ? 

If  we  are  to  believe  the  majority  of  commentators  and 
historians,  Jahveh  asks  of  Israel,  before  he  will  give  it  the 
kingdom  of  the  world,  the  practice  of  the  whole  of  what 
are  called  the  Christian  virtues. 

Nothing  of  the  kind.  Jahveh  merely  demands  that  his 
people  shall  form  an  absolute  nationalism  in  opposition  to 
foreigners.  The  laws  relating  to  the  social  order  and 
fraternal  life  are  only  promulgated  from  Jew  to  Jew,  not 
from  Jew  to  foreigner.  We  have  seen  that  the  "  neigh- 
bour "  of  a  Jew  is  another  Jew ;  a  pagan  is  not  the  neigh- 
bour of  a  Jew.     We  have  seen  that  the  "  foreigner  "  who 


INTEENATIONALISATION  OF  PROPHETIC  BOOKS  201 

is  protected  by  law  is  the  mercenary  or  the  proselyte  who 
lives  on  Jewish  soil  under  the  law  of  Jahveh.  The 
Jewish  law  is  only  for  the  Jews  and  the  Judaisers. 

Even  when  Jahveh  becomes  a  universal  god  he  is  the 
prototype  of  a  national  god ;  the  Jewish  law,  even  if  it 
become  universal  law  (by  conquest),  will  remain  Jewish 
law.  An  absolute  nationalism — that  is  the  gist  of  the 
prophets ;  and  it  is  the  gist,  too,  of  the  psalms  and 
apocalypses. 

A  statistic  will  show  this. 

The  covenant  concluded  between  Jahveh  and  Israel  is 
set  forth  or  recalled  in  about  five  hundred  passages  of  the 
prophetic  books.  About  two  hundred  of  these  passages 
do  not  give  the  conditions  with  any  exactness ;  they 
merely  recall  the  covenant.  But  the  conditions  are  stated 
in  about  three  hundred  passages.  We  may  distribute 
these  three  hundred  passages  in  groups. 

In  four  cases  out  of  ten  the  condition  is  that  they  shall 
not  worship  foreign  gods ; 

In  one  case  out  of  ten,  that  they  shall  not  represent 
Jahveh  in  a  material  form  ; 

In  one  case  out  of  ten,  that  they  shall  not  practise  his 
cult  anywhere  but  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem ; 

In  a  little  less  than  one  case  in  ten,  that  they  shall 
observe  the  Sabbath — a  supreme  commandment ; 

In  a  little  more  than  one  case  in  ten,  that  they  shall 
not  kill  or  steal ;  these  are  precepts  of  ordinary  law ; 
fornication  and  adultery  are  almost  always,  in  the  pro- 
phets, symbolical  expressions  for  the  worship  of  foreign 
gods; 

Lastly,  in  two  cases  out  of  ten,  it  is  enjoined  that  they 
do  not  violate  justice,  despoil  the  weak,  or  oppress  the 
orphan,  the  widow,  and  the  mercenary  stranger  residing 
in  Judaea  and  observing  the  Jewish  law ;  but  it  is  quite 
understood  that  there  is  question  only  of  justice  due  to 
the  Jew,  of  protection  due  to  the  Jewish  or  Judaising 
weak,  widow,  or  orphan. 


202    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPEEIALIST  EEVIVAL 

Hence,  in  only  one  case  in  ten  is  there  question  of  the 
rules  of  ordinary  morality ;  these,  moreover,  either  im- 
plicitly or  explicitly,  apply  only  between  Jew  and  Jew ; 
twice  the  covenant  imposes  a  law  of  democratic  equality 
and  protection  of  the  lowly  in  Israel ;  in  seven  cases  out 
of  ten  it  aims  merely  at  concentrating  Jewish  nationalism 
round  Jahveh. 

The  same  statistical  procedure  would  yield  analogous 
results  from  the  Mosaic  books. 

Seven-tenths  of  the  prophetic  prescriptions  and  three- 
fourths  of  the  Decalogue  and  the  Mosaic  law  are  devoted 
to  religious  questions  ;  this  frightful  preponderance  of  the 
cult  over  civil,  political,  and  moral  law  means  simply  that 
the  Jewish  soul,  in  order  to  live  and  last,  has  concentrated 
in  a  fanatical  nationalism,  and  given  to  its  country  the 
name  of  Jahveh,  god  of  Israel. 

The  men  of  Jerusalem  had  not  to  formulate  the 
principles  of  a  subjective  religion  for  future  ages;  and 
the  historian,  in  removing  from  the  Jewish  writers  the 
false  appearance  of  an  impossible  spirituality,  instead  of 
lowering  their  grandeur  really  restores  to  them  their  native 
truth. 

What  is  there  left  when  we  have  studied  the  develop- 
ment of  Jewish  nationalism  in  the  prophetic  books  and 
the  Mosaic  law,  pointed  out  the  democratic  tendency,  and 
noted  certain  principles  of  right  and  morals  that  are 
common  to  all  peoples  ?     Nothing. 

Nothing,  unless  it  be  this  : — 

The  malediction  of  politics ;  to  make  alliances  and 
organise  armies  is  a  mockery  of  Jahveh. 

The  malediction  of  luxury  ;  luxury  is  an  outrage  on 
Jahveh. 

The  malediction  of  commerce  ;  agriculture  and  pastoral 
work  alone  are  permitted  to  the  children  of  Jahveh ; 
commerce  is  for  the  goim. 

Beprobation  of  the  joy  of  life  and  of  pleasure  ;  chastity 


INTEENATIONALISATION  OF  PEOPHETIC  BOOKS  203 

is  erected  to  the  level  of  a  virtue  for  the  first  time  in 
history ;  love  becomes  a  shameful  necessity,  of  w^hich  one 
is  ashamed. 

And  then  the  malediction  of  the  great,  the  noble,  and 
the  strong.  Greatness,  strength,  and  nobility  are  so  many 
outrages  on  Jahveh.  Jahveh,  it  is  said  a  hundred  times, 
has  no  deeper  joy  than  in  humbling  the  pov^erful,  felling 
the  strong,  and  flouting  the  noble. 

And  then  the  irrevocable  condemnation  of  all  that  is 
intellectual,  of  art  and  science ;  never  were  the  "  intel- 
lectuals "  so  much  hated  as  they  were  by  Jewish  nation- 
alism. 

There  will  be  a  day  of  Jahveh  on  every  one  that  is 
proud  and  every  one  that  is  lifted  up ; 

And  upon  all  the  cedars  of  Lebanon,  and  upon  all  the 
oaks  of  Bashan  ; 

And  upon  all  the  high  mountains,  and  upon  all  the  hills 
that  are  lifted  up  ; 

And  upon  every  high  tower,  and  upon   every  fenced 
wall; 

And  upon  all  the  ships  of  Tarshish,  and  upon  all  that 
charms  the  eye.^ 

There  will  be  a  day  of  Jahveh  upon  all  that  charms 
the  eye !  Jahveh,  the  national  god,  was  the  sublime 
creation  that  gives  rise  to  an  imperialism  that  would 
conquer  the  world.  What  an  admirable  reward  the  god 
has  given  to  the  people  who  invented  him  !  But  this 
god,  who  in  ancient  times  bore,  among  other  names,  the 
name  of  Moloch,  remains  the  terrible  god  to  whom 
children  are  sacrificed.  If  he  has  given  the  world  as  a 
reward  to  his  people,  he  has  exacted  in  return  the  first 
born  of  the  human  sentiments. 

Such  is  the  meaning  of  the  covenant,  the  basis  of 
Judaism. 

It  is  a  commonplace  to  say  that  the  legendary  books 
and  the  prophetic  books  are  resplendent  with  literary 
beauty.     If  Genesis,  and  the  romances  of  the  two  Isaiahs, 

*  Isaiah  ii.  12-16, 


204    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  EEVIVAL 

Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel,  had  not  been  full  of  pages  that 
attract  our  admiration  even  in  an  irreligious  age,  they 
would  never  have  accomplished  the  work  that  they  have 
done.  They  would  have  put  no  enthusiasm  into  the 
men  of  Judaea ;  they  would  not  have  overthrown  the 
pagan  world ;  they  would  not  agitate  souls  to-day.  We 
find  in  them  nothing  of  the  perfectly  harmonious  beauty 
which  Greece  created  ;  what  we  find  are  strong  souls,  that 
see  strongly,  and,  to  express  their  vision,  use  strong  words. 

Jerusalem  has,  by  a  piece  of  fortune  that  I  had  almost 
called  miraculous,  given  birth  to  a  moral  dj^nasty  of  men 
of  genius,  men  of  iron,  men  of  dreams,  men  of  fire,  who 
have  made  it  live  for  ages — in  scdcula  scsculorum,  as  the 
pride  of  triumphant  Judaism  will  afterwards  sing.  But 
men  of  genius  are  not  merely  the  summary  of  a  period 
or  a  tradition ;  the  sight  of  the  things  around  them 
awakes  in  them  an  understanding,  a  divination,  an  idea, 
that  it  does  not  awaken  in  the  men  about  them.  They 
flare  up,  like  torches,  in  the  sombre  night.  A  great 
shadow,  undefined,  mortally  vague,  spreads  on  every  side ; 
and  suddenly  the  lightning  comes,  and  they  appear,  they 
blaze,  they  are  lighthouses,  they  are  the  star  over  a  sea 
where  all  was  chaos,  and  which  becomes  in  their  light  a 
broad  road  towards  the  future. 

The  anonymous  writers  who,  in  idealising  the  figure  of 
the  ancient  dervishes  of  Palestine,  created  the  characters 
of  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Isaiah,  to  meet  the  most 
pressing  needs  of  their  country  and  their  time,  stand  out 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  And  the  century,  the  third 
century,  which  witnessed  their  appearance,  should  be 
known  as  the  century  of  the  prophets. 

Two  hundred  years  earlier  there  had  been,  across  the 
sea,  a  prodigious  outpouring  of  disinterested  splendour. 
The  Greek  genius  gave  birth  to  art  and  science.  The 
brains  of  men  learned  at  Athens  to  be  in  harmony,  and 
humanity  may  develop  on  the  education  created  by  the 
age  of  Pericles. 


INTERNATIONALISATION  OF  PROPHETIC  BOOKS  205 

Later  there  will  be  the  age  of  Augustus,  and  its 
successor,  the  age  of  the  Antonines.  It  will  be  the 
Roman  epoch.  And  humanity  will  learn  from  Eome 
law,  the  art  of  living  in  society,  of  commanding  and 
obeying,  of  being  peoples. 

The  moment  when  humanity  will  awake  at  the  light 
of  Greek  culture,  after  a  thousand  years  of  stumbling  in 
the  dark,  will  be  the  age  of  Leo  X. ;  it  will  assuredly  be 
the  Renascence,  for  the  world  will  be  born  again  to 
thought  and  to  joy. 

But  there  was  an  age  when  certain  men,  in  the 
wildest  corner  of  the  universe,  founded,  in  poems,  dis- 
courses, and  frightful  imprecations,  something  new, 
something  unknown  to  either  Greek  or  Roman  civilisa- 
tion, something  that  will  in  turn  be  called  Judaism,  then 
Christianity,  then,  in  a  general  word.  Religion,  and  that 
will,  in  the  days  when  evolution  reaches  its  limit,  become 
Socialism.  Whether  we  bless  or  curse  that  age,  let  us 
recognise  its  greatness ;  it  is  the  age  of  the  prophets. 

Judaism  may  now  spread  throughout  the  world.  We 
have  seen  it  radiate  from  Jerusalem  across  Judaea,  then 
through  the  whole  of  Palestine ;  from  there  it  has 
infiltrated  into  cognate  and  neighbouring  lands,  Moab, 
Edom,  Ammon,  and  Syria ;  then  colonies  have  gone  out 
and  settled  in  Asia  Minor:  in  Egypt,  in  the  islands  of  the 
Mediterranean,  even  on  Greek  soil.  The  Jews  take  with 
them  everywhere  the  words  of  their  prophets,  consoling 
them  in  their  weakness,  their  humiliations,  promising 
them  the  victory  in  an  assured  time.  They  can  bear 
distress  and  oppression,  mockery  and  insults  ;  they  have 
with  them  this  viaticum  of  enduring  hopes  and  intimate 
certainties  that  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  the  two  Isaiahs 
have  given  them.  The  survival  of  Judaism  amid  so 
many  causes  of  ruin  could  not  be  explained  without  the 
work  of  these  writers  of  genius. 

In  the  west,  meantime,  the  power  of  Rome  is  growing ; 
Carthage,    its   great    enemy,    is   vanquished.      Presently 


206    TWO  ISAIAHS,  AND  IMPERIALIST  REVIVAL 

Greece  will  become  a  Roman  province;  for  the  moment  she 
wears  herself  out  in  intestine  war.  Her  political  agony 
will  not,  indeed,  lessen  her  intellectual  domination ; 
intellectual  Greece  will  triumph,  in  proportion  as  the 
policy  of  Rome  triumphs.  The  third  century  is  the 
time  of  the  great  philosophic  schools  that  take  their  rise 
in  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  the  time  of  the  first  Scipios.  But 
amid  these  mountains  of  Judaea,  of  which  the  scholars  of 
Greece  and  the  Senate  of  Rome  hardly  know  the  name, 
there  are  men  who  have  prepared  the  revolution  that  will 
one  day  destroy  the  Graeco-Roman  world. 


PAET  THIRD 

THE  APOCALYPSES 


Chapter  I. 

HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

The  prophecies  of  the  Second  Isaiah  date  from  about  the 
year  200  ;  the  apocalypse  of  Daniel  from  about  the  year 
164.  The  Second  Isaiah  closes  the  century  of  the 
prophets ;  Daniel  inaugurates  the  era  of  the  apocalypses. 
There  is  no  breach  of  continuity  between  them.  The 
apocalypse  follows  the  prophets  logically  no  less  than 
historically.  The  last  of  the  minor  prophets,  especially 
Zechariah,  the  most  significant  of  them,  are  witnesses  of 
the  filiation.  Before  passing  from  one  period  to  the  other, 
from  the  prophets  to  the  apocalypses,  we  must  consider 
the  psalms.  A  vast  collection  of  short  national  poems, 
beginning  in  the  third  century  and  continuing  during 
half  of  the  second,  the  psalms  will  enable  us  to 
characterise  the  state  of  soul  of  the  Jewish  people  at  the 
time  when,  the  voices  of  the  prophets  having  ceased,  the 
apocalypses  appear. 

Eeuss,  the  great  Biblical  scholar,  has  called  the  psalms 
the  hymn-book  of  the  Synagogue. 

In  point  of  fact,  the  synagogue  had  arisen,  and  was 
developing  in  Judaea  and  in  the  Jewish  colonies.  Judaism 
had  only  one  temple,  that  of  Jerusalem ;  so  the  Mosaic 
law  had  enjoined.  But  the  one  temple  that  had  sufficed 
during  the  fifth  and  fourth  centuries,  when  the  Jewish 
State  comprised  only  Jerusalem  and  its  outskirts,  and 
even  sufficed  when  Judaism  had  spread  about  Jerusalem 

207 


208  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

over  the  territory  of  Palestine,  could  not  suffice  now  that 
Israel  had  settlements  in  the  whole  of  Palestine,  in  Syria, 
Egypt,  Asia  Minor,  the  islands,  and  in  Greece  itself.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  was  impossible  to  infringe  the  pri- 
mordial law  of  Judaism ;  and  the  sacerdotal  aristocracy 
at  Jerusalem  would  not  have  tolerated  rivals. 

The  Jerusalem  temple  remained  the  one  temple  of 
Jahveh.  There  only  could  holocausts  be  offered  to  him ; 
there  only  did  the  series  of  official  rites  proceed.  Offerings 
and  tithes  continued  to  flow  to  the  Jerusalem  temple ; 
and,  from  all  the  Jewries  of  the  world,  it  was  to  that  alone 
that  the  pilgrimages  brought  the  tribute  of  the  piety  of 
the  faithful.  The  Jerusalem  temple  remained  the  centre 
of  the  Jewish  fatherland.  But  there  arose  houses  of 
prayer,  preaching,  and  patriotic  gatherings ;  even  in 
Jerusalem  there  were,  round  the  temple,  pious  shelters 
for  the  pilgrims  of  various  nationalities ;  and  these  were 
called  synagogues. 

No  cult  was  practised  in  the  synagogues ;  no  sacrifices 
were  offered  in  them ;  they  were  meeting-places.  There 
one  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  Law  and,  later,  of  the 
prophets ;  men  were  strengthened  in  the  love  of  their 
country  ;  and,  with  the  reading  of  the  national  books, 
the  commentaries,  and  the  exhortations  of  those  who 
speak,  they  loved  to  sing  in  common,  in  long-drawn 
sombre  melody,  hymns  in  which  their  souls  found 
expression. 

The  psalms  were  the  hymns  they  sang  in  the 
synagogues. 

Who  composed  these  hymns  ? 

The  old  ecclesiastical  exegesis  did  not  hesitate  to 
declare  that  the  psalms  were  the  work  written  in  the 
tenth  century  by  the  pious  King  David  and  other 
venerable  characters  of  antiquity.  We  cannot  take  a 
single  step  in  Jewish  literature  without  finding  pseude- 
pigraphy.  The  psalms  were  composed  by  the  poets  of 
the   third    and    second   centuries.     The   form,   which   is 


HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES  209 

suggested  by  various  passages  in  the  prophets,  was 
probably  borrowed  from  ancient  Babylonian  poetry ; 
here  again,  however,  the  Jews,  in  appropriating  a  foreign 
thing,  succeeded  in  making  it  eminently  Jewish. 

Just  as  the  authors  of  the  prophetic  books  had  sought 
in  ancient  Israelitic  history  the  situations  in  relation  to 
which  they  had  created  the  discourses  they  wished  to 
address  to  their  contemporaries,  so  the  authors  of  the 
psalms  took  their  situations  from  ancient  history, 
especially  from  the  legends  of  King  David ;  and,  by  a 
similar  artifice,  they  represented  the  songs  which  they 
would  have  sung  to  their  contemporaries  to  be  the 
antique  work  of  certain  heroes  of  their  national  history. 
Most  of  the  psalms  thus  composed  remained  discon- 
nected and  independent  of  each  other,  and  formed  the 
collection  known  as  the  book  of  psalms  ;  others,  how- 
ever, were  inserted  in  the  historical  books,  and  even  in 
the  prophetical  books,  purporting  to  be  lyrical  fragments 
uttered  on  special  occasions  by  Moses  or  his  sister  Mary, 
by  David,  or  by  Hezekiah. 

As  an  outcome  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  end  of  the 
third  and  beginning  of  the  second  centuries,  the  hymns 
of  the  synagogue  have  a  certain  prayer  as  their  constant 
refrain : — 

"  Jahveh,  save  us  from  our  enemies  ;  avenge  us  on  our 
enemies  ;  annihilate  our  enemies." 

The  celebrated  psalm  cxxxvii.,  Super  fliunina  Baby- 
lonis,  must  be  quoted  in  full : — 

By  the  rivers  of  Babylon,  there  we  sat  down,  yea,  we 
wept,  when  we  remembered  Zion. 

We  hanged  our  harps  upon  the  willows  of  the  land. 

Eor  there  they  that  carried  us  away  captive  required  of 
us  a  song  ;  and  they  that  wasted  us  required  of  us  mirth, 
saying.  Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion. 

How  should  we  sing  the  songs  of  Jahveh  in  a  strange 
land? 

If  I  forget  thee,  Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand  forget 
her  cunning. 

If  I  do  not  remember  thee,  let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the 

P 


210  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

root  of  my  mouth ;  if  I  prefer  not  Jerusalem  above  my 
chief  joy. 

Eemember,  Jahveh,  the  children  of  Edom,  who  said,  in 
the  day  of  Jerusalem :  Ease  it,  rase  it,  even  the  founda- 
tion thereof. 

0  daughter  of  Babylon,  v^rho  art  to  be  destroyed,  happy 
shall  he  be  that  rewardeth  thee  as  thou  hast  served  us. 

Happy  shall  he  be  that  taketh  and  dasheth  thy  little 
ones  against  the  stones. 

Psalm  xxi.  8-10  : — 

Thine  hand  shall  find  out  all  thine  enemies  ;  thy  right 
hand  shall  find  out  those  that  hate  thee. 

Thou  shalt  make  them  as  a  fiery  oven  in  the  time  of 
thine  anger ;  Jahveh,  thy  wrath  shall  swallow  them  up, 
and  the  fire  shall  devour  them. 

Their  fruit  shalt  thou  destroy  from  the  earth,  and  their 
seed  from  among  the  children  of  men. 

Psalm  XXXV.  26  : — 

Let  them  be  clothed  with  shame  and  dishonour. 

Psalm  Iv.  15  and  23  :— 

Let  death  seize  upon  them,  and  let  them  go  down  quick 
into  the  home  of  the  dead. 

But  thou,  O  god,  shalt  bring  them  down  into  the  bottom 
of  the  pit,  and  they  shall  not  live  out  half  their  days. 

Psalm  Iviii.  6-10  : — 

Break  their  teeth,  O  god,  in  their  mouth ;  break  the 
jaw  of  the  young  lions,  0  Jahveh. 

Let  them  melt  away  as  waters  which  run  continually  ; 
let  the  arrows  they  put  to  the  bow  be  as  if  broken. 

As  a  snail  which  melteth,  let  every  one  of  them  pass 
away ;  let  them  be  like  the  untimely  birth  of  a  woman, 
which  hath  not  seen  the  sun. 

Before  your  pots  can  feel  the  thorns,  let  the  whirlwind 
take  them  away,  both  green  and  aflame. 

Let  me  rejoice  in  seeing  my  vengeance ;  let  me  bathe 
my  feet  in  their  blood. 

Psalm  Ixviii.  23  : — 

Let  the  tongue  of  thy  dogs  have  its  share  of  the  enemy, 
saith  Jahveh. 

Psalm  Ixxix.  6,  10,  and  12  :^ 

Pour  out  thy  wrath  upon  the  heathen  that  have  known 


HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES  211 

not  thee,  and  upon  the  kingdoms  that  have  not  called 
upon  thy  name. 

Let  it  be  known  among  the  heathen  in  our  sight  that 
there  is  vengeance  for  the  blood  which  is  shed. 

Render  unto  our  neighbours  sevenfold  into  their  bosom 
their  reproach. 

Psalm  Ixxxiii.  9-17  : — 

Do  unto  them  as  unto  the  Midianites,  as  to  Sisera,  as 
to  Jabin,  at  the  brook  of  Kison ; 

Which  perisheth  at  Endor,  and  were  as  dung  for  the 
earth. 

Make  their  nobles  like  Oreb,  and  like  Zeeb,  and  their 
kings  as  Zebah,  and  as  Zalmunna  ; 

My  god,  make  them  like  a  whirlwind,  as  the  stubble 
before  the  wind,  as  the  fire  that  burneth  the  forest,  and 
as  the  flame  that  setteth  the  mountains  on  fire. 

So  persecute  them  with  thy  tempest,  and  make  them 
afraid  with  thy  storm. 

Fill  their  faces  with  shame,  and  they  will  seek  thy 
name,  O  Jahveh. 

Let  them  be  confounded  and  troubled  for  ever ;  yea,- 
let  them  be  put  to  shame  and  perish. 

Psalm  xciv.  1-3  : — 

God  of  vengeance,  Jahveh,  god  of  vengeance,  show 
thyself. 

Lift  up  thyself,  thou  Judge  of  the  earth  ;  render  them 
their  reward. 

How  long  shall  they  be  glad  ? 

At  times  the  Jew  of  the  psalms  boasts  of  loving  his 

enemies We  find,  again,  in  psalm  cix.  6-15,  how  he 

loves  them : — 

Set  thou  a  wicked  man  over  him  ;  and  let  Satan  stand 
at  his  right  hand. 

When  he  shall  be  judged,  let  him  be  condemned ;  and 
let  his  prayer  become  sin. 

Let  his  days  be  few ;  and  let  another  take  his  office. 

Let  his  children  be  fatherless,  and  his  wife  a  widow. 

Let  his  children  be  vagabonds,  and  beg ;  let  them  seek 
their  bread  far  from  their  ruined  homes. 

Let  the  extortioner  cast  his  net  on  all  that  he  hath, 
and  let  the  strangers  spoil  the  fruit  of  his  labour. 

Let  there  be  none  to  extend  mercy  unto  him,  neither 
let  there  be  any  to  favour  his  fatherless  children. 


212  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

Let  his  posterity  be  cut  off ;  and  in  another  age  let 
their  name  be  blotted  out. 

Let  the  iniquity  of  his  fathers  be  remembered  with 
Jahveh,  and  let  not  the  sin  of  his  mother  be  blotted  out. 

Let  them  be  before  Jahveh  continually,  and  let  him 
cut  off  the  memory  of  them  from  the  earth. 

And  later,  18-19  :— 

He  clothes  himself  with  cursing  like  as  with  his 
garment,  and  it  comes  like  water  into  his  bowels,  and 
like  oil  into  his  bones. 

Let  it  be  unto  him  as  the  garment  which  covereth  him, 
and  for  a  girdle  wherewith  he  is  girded  continually. 

And,  by  way  of  conclusion,  21 : — 

And  do  thou,  for  me,  lord  Jahveh,  for  thy  name's  sake, 
because  thy  mercy  is  great. 

Psalm  cxxxix.  contains  the  avowal  (22)  without 
disguise : — 

I  hate  them  with  perfect  hatred. 

Who  are  these  enemies  on  whom  the  vengeance  of 
Jahveh  is  called  ? 

They  are  the  "  wicked  ";  that  is  to  say,  for  the  tradi- 
tionalist Jews,  foreigners  and  Hellenising  Jews. 

The  "  wicked  "  are,  first,  foreigners,  the  men  who,  both 
in  Judaea  and  the  Jewish  colonies,  "oppress  the  Jewish 
people,"  *  "  the  nations  that  have  not  known  thee,  the 
kingdoms  that  have  not  called  upon  thy  name,"  ^  "  the 
neighbours  who  have  outraged  Jahveh,""  those  "who 
have  burned  up  the  synagogues  of  god,"^  those  "who 
have  sought  to  cut  them  off  from  being  a  nation,  that  the 
name  of  Israel  may  be  no  more  in  remembrance,"*  "all 
nations  that  compassed  it  about,"  ®  etc. 

The  "  wicked "  are  also  the  Hellenising  Jews,  the 
aristocrats  who  live  in  opulence,  the  proud  priests  who 
exploit  the  poor,  "those  who  glorify  themselves,"^  who 
"  are   inclosed    in    their   own   fat,"  *   who    "  render   not 

'  All  the  psalms,  passiin.  •  Psalms  Ixxix.  6. 

*  Psalms  Ixxix.  12,  and  passim.  *  Psahns  Ixxiv.  8. 

*  Psalms  Ixxxiii.  4.  *  Psahns  cxviii.  10. 
^  Psalms  Ixxiii.  8.  ®  Psalms  xvii.  10. 


HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES  213 

justice," '  who  are  "  powerful ";  they  are,  nevertheless, 
the  "  brothers  "  of  the  poor,  "  sons  of  the  same  mother,"  " 
and — it  is  said  quite  literally — "  the  princes  of  the  Jewish 
people." ' 

While  the  enemies  of  the  traditionalist  Jews  are  called 
the  "  wicked,"  the  traditionalist  Jews  are  called  the  "  just " 
{sadiq),  the  "pious"  (hasid),  the  "holy"  {qadosh),  the 
"  poor  "  {ani),  the  "  humble  "  {anav),  the  "  needy  "  {ehion). 

The  procedure  is  elementary.  Everything  of  the  tradi- 
tionalist Jew  is  good ;  all  that  is  hostile  to  him  is  wicked. 
Good,  wicked ;  just,  unjust ;  holy,  perverse — the  use  of 
the  words  is  absolute. 

The  traditionalist  Jews,  the  puritans,  the  men  of  the 
people,  have  all  the  virtues  that  are  gathered  up  in  the 
words  "holiness"  and  "humility."  The  others,  on  the 
contrary,  their  enemies,  are  "violent,"  "sanguinary," 
"  pitiless,"  "  persecutors,"  "  tyrannical,"  "  thieves," 
"exploiters,"  "impudent,"  "insolent,"  "their  mouths 
full  of  insults,"  "proud,"  "braggarts,"  "liars,"  "calum- 
niators"; they  have  "vipers' tongues";  they  are  "  knavish," 
"treacherous,"  "doing  evil  for  its  own  sake,"  "  impious," 
"blasphemers,"  "hardened  sinners";  they  are — it  is  the 
great  crime — "rich,"  "contented,"  "happy,"  "tranquil," 
and,  to  crown  the  whole,  "  senseless." 

At  the  root  of  the  psalms,  as  of  all  the  Judaic  books, 
is  the  celebrated  covenant  agreed  upon  by  Jahveh  and 
Israel.  Jahveh  has  promised  victory  to  Israel,  Israel 
claims  from  Jahveh  the  fulfilment  of  his  promise. 

"If  thou  art  powerful,  Jahveh,  show  it Since  thou 

hast  made  us  promises,  Jahveh,  keep  them If  thou 

wouldst  be  honoured,  protect  us,  Jahveh." 

Frequently  the  Jew  of  the  psalms  admits  that  he  has 
"sinned";  frequently  he  denies  it.  He  has  not  offended 
Jahveh ;  it  was  his  fathers  who  offended. 

Sometimes    the   argument   is   mixed   with   quibbling. 

*  Psalms,  every  page.  "^  Psahns  1.  20  and  Ixix.  8. 

^  Psahns  cxiii.  8. 


214  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

In  psalm  Ixxxix.  (30-37)  the  following  reasoning  is  put 
to  Jahveh : — 

"  Thou  hast  promised  us  thy  alliance.  If  we  offend 
thee,  by  not  fulfilling  thy  law,  chastise  us.  But  that  does 
not  justify  thee  in  not  fulfilling  thy  promise.  Strike,  but 
pay." 

The  payment  is,  for  the  Jew  of  the  psalms,  the  "  enjoy- 
ment of  his  inheritance."  ^  Palestine  was  the  inheritance 
promised  by  Jahveh  to  his  people  in  the  days  of  Deutero- 
nomy ;  now,  ever  since  the  two  Isaiahs,  it  embraces  the 
whole  world. 

I  will  give  thee  the  nations  for  thine  inheritance,  and 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession. 

Thou  shalt  break  them  with  a  sceptre  of  iron ;  thou 
shalt  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel.'* 

He  shall  send  the  rod  of  my  strength  out  of  Zion,  and  I 
shall  rule  in  the  midst  of  mine  enemies.^ 

The  lord  shall  crush  kings  ;  he  shall  fill  the  nations  with 
dead  bodies ;  he  shall  crush  the  heads  of  the  earth.'* 

They  will  bind  their  kings  with  chains,  and  their 
ministers  with  fetters  of  iron.*^ 

The  nations  that  have  not  been  destroyed  will  be 
subject,  and  will  pay  tribute.  The  dilemma  proposed  to 
the  goim  by  the  two  Isaiahs  is  still  there — to  submit  or 
perish. 

Jahveh  will  make  us  princes  in  all  the  earth. ^ 
Jahveh  will  bring  the  nations  under  our  feet.' 
Kings  shall  bring  presents  unto  thee ;  they  will  come  to 

cast  themselves  at  thy  feet  with  pieces  of  silver.* 

They  that  dwell  in  the  wilderness  shall  bow  before  him ; 

and  his  enemies  shall  lick  the  dust. 

The  kings  of  Tarshish  and  the  isles  shall  bring  presents; 

the  kings  of  Sheba  and  Seba  shall  ofi'er  gifts. 

Yea,  all  kings  shall  fall  down  before  him  ;  all  nations 

shall  serve  him.* 

The  miserable  Jews  scattered  among  the  foreign 
peoples  will  return  in  triumph  to  Judaea. 

*  Psalms  xvi.  5-6.  ^  Psalms  ii.  8-9.  *  Psalms  ex.  1-2. 

^  Psalms  ex.  5-6.  ®  Psalms  cxlix.  8.  *  Psalms  xlv.  16. 

''  Psalms  xlvii.  3.        ^  Psalvis  Ixviii.  29-30.        °  Psalms  Ixxii.  9-11. 


HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES  215 

Jahveh  will  redeem  the  exiles,  and  gather  them  out  of 
all  lands,  from  the  east  and  from  the  west,  from  the 
north  and  from  the  south.  ^ 

Then  there  shall  reign  over  the  world  a  king  descended 
from  David,  who  "  will  have  dominion  from  sea  to  sea, 
and  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  ends  of  the  earth."/  It 
will  be  a  kingdom  in  which  the  face  of  Jahveh  shall 
shine  ;  in  which  there  will  be  a  "  fullness  of  joy  and 
pleasures  for  evermore";*  in  which  the  Jew  will  be 
"  glorified  and  satisfied  with  days  ";^  and  "  so  heaped  up 
with  good  things  in  his  age  that  his  youth  will  be 
renewed  like  the  eagle's." " 

Such  is  the  dream.     Here  is  the  reality : — 

Have  mercy  upon  me,  Jahveh,  for  I  am  weak  ;  heal 
me,  Jahveh,  for  my  bones  are  vexed.^ 

I  am  weary  with  my  groaning ;  all  the  night  make  I 
my  bed  to  swim ;  I  water  my  couch  with  my  tears.' 

Consider  my  trouble  which  I  suffer  of  them  that  hate 
me.^ 

Hear  the  humiliation  of  the  afflicted,  the  cry  of  anguish 
of  the  poor.^ 

I  am  a  worm,  and  no  man ;  a  reproach  of  men  and 
despised  of  the  people.  They  that  see  me  laugh  me  to 
scorn.^° 

Have  mercy  upon  me,  Jahveh,  for  I  am  in  trouble ; 
mine  eye  is  consumed  with  grief,  yea,  my  soul  and  my 
belly. 

My  life  is  spent  with  grief,  and  my  years  with  sighing ; 
my  strength  faileth,  and  my  bones  are  consumed. 

I  am  a  reproach,  even  among  my  neighbours ;  I  am  a 
great  reproach  and  a  fear  to  mine  acquaintance ;  they 
that  see  me  without  flee  from  me. 

I  am  forgotten  as  a  dead  man  out  of  mind ;  I  am  like 
a  broken  vessel." 

Elsewhere : — 

My  wounds  stink  and  are  corrupt 

I  go  mourning  all  day  long. 

1  Psahns  cvii.  2-3,  and  many  other  places.  ^  Psalms  Ixxii.  8. 

^  Psalvis  xvi.  11.  ■•  Psalvis  xci.  16.  *  Psalms  ciii.  5. 

«  Psalms  vi.  2.  ''  Psalms  vi.  6.  ^  Psalms  ix.  13. 

8  Psalms  xii.  5.  ^°  Psalms  xxii.  6-7.  "  Psalms  xxxi.  9-12. 


216  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

My  loins  are  filled  with  inflammation,  and  there  is  no 
soundness  in  my  flesh. 

I  am  feeble  and  sore  broken ;  I  roar  by  reason  of  the 
disquietness  of  my  heart/ 

Psalm  xlii.  begins  with  a  famous  lyric  movement : — 

As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  panteth 
my  soul  after  thee,  O  god 

But  if  the  soul  of  the  psalmist  pants  after  his  god,  it 
is  because  he  is  oppressed  by  his  neighbours,  and  awaits 
vengeance  of  his  god.     I  quote  : — 

Mine  enemies  reproach  me  and  break  my  bones 0 

my   soul,    hope    thou    in    god may  my   god   be   my 

salvation.^ 

Let  us  continue  : — 

We  are  like  sheep  appointed  for  meat 

A  reproach  to  our  neighbours,  a  scorn  and  derision  to 
them  that  are  round  about  us. 

We  are  a  byword  among  the  nations 

My  confusion  is  continually  before  me,  and  the  shame 
of  my  face  covereth  me.^ 

Tacitus  and  Juvenal  will,  at  a  later  date,  speak  of  the 
Jew  just  as  he  speaks  of  himself : — 

Be  merciful  unto  me,  O  god  ;  for  man  would  swallow 
me  up  ;  he  fighting  daily  oppresseth  me.* 

Save  me,  O  god ;  for  the  waters  are  come  in  unto  my 
soul,  and  I  sink  in  deep  mire.* 

When  I  take  as  a  garment  the  garment  of  affliction,  I 
become  a  mockery  to  them. 

They  that  sit  in  the  gate  speak  of  me,  and  I  am  the 
song  of  the  drunkards.^ 

Deliver  me  out  of  the  mire." 

Thou  knowest  my  reproach,  and  my  shame,  and  my 
dishonour. 

Eeproach  breaketh  my  heart,  and  I  am  full  of  heaviness ; 
and  I  looked  for  some  to  take  pity,  but  there  was  none.* 

And  the  psalmist  adds  : — 


*  Psalms  xxxviii.  5-8.        '  Psalms  xlii.  10-11.         ^  Psalms  xliv.  11-15. 

*  Psabns  Ivi.  1.  '  Psalms  Ixix.  1-2.  "  Psalms  Ixix.  11-12. 

''  Psalms  Ixix.  14.  *  Psabns  Ixix.  19-20. 


HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES  217 

Mine  enemies  gave  me  gall  for  my  meat,  and  in  my 
thirst  they  gave  me  vinegar/ 

One  can  thus  understand  the  cry  of  these  men,  when 
they  turn  upon  their  enemies : — 

Let  their  table  become  a  snare  before  them,  and  trap  in 
the  midst  of  their  welfare. 

Let  their  eyes  be  darkened  that  they  see  not ;  and  make 
their  loins  to  shake. 

Pour  out  thine  indignation  upon  them,  and  let  thy 
wrathful  anger  take  hold  of  them. 

Let  their  habitation  be  desolate,  and  let  none  dwell  in 
their  tents 

Add  iniquity  unto  their  iniquity,  and  let  them  not  come 
into  thy  justice. 

Let  them  be  blotted  out  of  the  book  of  the  living,  and 
not  be  written  in  it  with  the  just."^ 

The  just  man  always  means  the  Jew ;  the  wicked,  the 
enemy  of  the  Jew.  And  the  just  man,  the  Jew,  is  now 
the  humiliated : — 

We  are  a  reproach  to  our  neighbours,  a  scorn  and 
derision  to  them  that  are  round  about  us." 

My  bones  cleave  to  my  skin. 

I  am  like  a  pelican  of  the  wilderness ;  I  am  like  an  owl 
in  the  ruins. 

I  have  lost  sleep,  and  am  as  a  sparrow  alone  upon  the 
house  top. 

Mine  enemies  reproach  me  all  the  day 

I  eat  ashes  like  bread,  and  mingle  my  drink  with  tears.* 

I  am  gone  like  the  shadow  when  it  lengtheneth ;  I  am 
tossed  up  and  down  as  the  locust.^ 

I  am  small  and  despised.^ 

We  are  exceedingly  filled  with  contempt ;  our  soul  is 
exceedingly  filled  with  mockery.^ 

Jahveh,  attend  unto  my  cry ;  for  I  am  brought  very 
low ;  deliver  me  from  my  persecutors,  for  they  are 
stronger  than  I.* 

We  dwell  in  darkness,  as  those  that  have  been  long 
dead. 

Therefore  is  my  spirit  overwhelmed  within  me ;  my 
heart  within  me  is  desolate.^ 

1  Psalms  Ixix.  21.  ^  Psalms  Ixix.  22-28.        '  Psalms  Ixxix.  4. 

*  Psalms  cii.  5-10.  ^  Psalms  cix.  23.  '^  Psalms  cxix.  141. 

'  Psalms  cxxiii.  3.  ^  Psalms  cxlii.  6.  ^  Psahns  cxliii.  3-4. 


218  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

But  the  counterpart  of  the  humility  of  the  Jew  is  the 
omnipotence  of  his  god. 

Jahveh,  the  httle  local  god  worshipped  by  David,  the 
national  god  created  by  the  patriotic  spirit  of  the  early 
priests  of  Jerusalem,  the  saviour  who  has  brought  Judah 
back  from  exile  and  raised  up  again  the  walls  of  the  city, 
the  protector  of  the  ardent  Jewish  congregation,  has 
gradually  become  the  unique  strength  of  these  wretched 
men ;  and  his  praise  flows  unceasingly  through  the 
psalms.  Jahveh  alone  can  award  the  victory  to  his 
people.  All  power  belongs  to  Jahveh.  Not  only  can  the 
enemies  of  the  Jews  do  nothing  against  Jahveh  ;  not  only 
can  the  Jews  themselves  do  nothing  against  Jahveh  ;  but 
all  that  the  Jews  do,  or  can  do,  does  not  count,  and  is 
nothing. 

I  trust  not  in  my  bow,  neither  shall  my  sword  save  me ; 
it  is  thou  alone  that  dost  save  us  from  our  enemies. 

Except  Jahveh  build  the  house,  they  labour  in  vain  that 
build  it ;  except  Jahveh  keep  the  city,  the  watchman 
watcheth  in  vain. 

In  vain  for  you  to  rise  up  eai'ly,  to  sit  up  late ;  Jahveh 
giveth  just  the  same  to  his  beloved  during  sleep. ^ 

Never  were  perseverance  and  tenacity  pushed  so  far; 
but  never,  at  the  same  time,  was  contempt  of  personal 
action,  of  virile  energy,  human  liberation,  and  bold  front 
proclaimed  so  ferociously.  In  the  prophets  the  Jewish 
soul  had  not  pushed  to  the  extreme  the  idea  that  Jahveh 
alone  can  do  things.  Jahveh  was  the  great  figure  that 
dominated  the  history  of  Israel ;  but,  if  it  were  only  in  its 
rebellions  and  blasphemies,  Israel  still  existed  beside 
Jahveh.  The  struggle  was  still  on  between  Jacob  and 
the  god.  Now  the  full  consequences  of  the  Judaic  spirit 
appear.     The  covenant  produces  its  effects. 

Jahveh  is  strong  in  direct  proportion  to  the  weakness 
of  his  people  ;  powerful  in  proportion  to  its  humiliation. 

*  Psalms  xliv.  6.  ^  Psalms  cxxvii.  1-2. 


HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES  219 

The  lowliest  of  people  needed,  if  it  were  to  live  and 
triumph,  the  most  powerful  of  gods. 

What  is  to  be  done  by  such  feeble  men  in  the  hands  of 
so  strong  a  god  ? 

Give  themselves  to  him,  entirely  and  unreservedly. 

Expect  everjrthing  from  him. 

Expect  nothing  of  themselves. 

Expect  no  result  of  their  efforts. 

Yield  like  the  leaf  that  is  borne  in  the  wind,  the  stick 
that  drifts  on  the  stream,  the  stone  that  is  flung  from  the 
sling. 

And,  simply,  observe  the  commandments. 

The  Jew  has  made  a  covenant  with  his  god.  Each 
must  give  something.  The  Jew  has  promised  his  god 
that  he  will  observe  his  law ;  he  looks  to  him  for 
everything. 

All  they  that  see  me,  laugh  me  to  scorn  ;  they  shoot  out 
the  lip,  they  shake  the  head. 

He  trusteth  to  Jahveh,  they  say ;  lot  him  bring  him 
forth,  let  him  deliver  him,  seeing  he  delights  in  him. 

Thou  art  he  that  took  me  out  of  the  womb  ;  that  made 
me  rest  in  safety  when  I  was  upon  my  mother's  breasts ; 
I  was  cast  upon  thee  from  the  womb  ;  thou  art  my  god 
from  my  mother's  belly. 

Be  not  far  from  me,  when  trouble  is  near,  when  there 
is  none  to  help 

Be  thou  not  far  from  me,  Jahveh  ;  O  my  strength,  haste 
thee  to  deliver  me  from  the  sword 

And  I  will  tell  thy  glory  everywhere ;  I  will  celebrate 
thee ;  I  will  glorify  thee  ;  I  will  pay  my  vows  before  thee. 

"  Heaven  helps  those  who  help  themselves  "  is  a  pagan, 
not  a  Jewish,  precept.  It  means,  first,  that  you  must 
help  yourself,  make  an  effort,  be  active,  will ;  you  must 
be  the  wind,  not  the  leaf — the  current,  not  the  stick — the 
sling,  not  the  stone.  Heaven  will  then  help  you ;  but  it 
matters  little,  because  by  your  own  effort  you  have 
deserved  to  be  helped. 

Israel,  on  the  contrary,  expects  its  salvation  and  victory 

*  Psalvis  rxii.  7-25. 


220  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

from  Jahveh.  He  waits  in  a  ferocious  and  invincible 
obstinacy,  but  he  waits  in  prayer.  And  the  weaker  he 
makes  himself,  the  more  he  will  rely  on  the  favour  of 
Jahveh;  and  the  more  he  relies  on  Jahveh,  the  weaker 
and  more  lowly  he  will  become. 

Thus  is  faith  defined,  in  religious  language.  The  Jews 
had  a  glowing  faith,  for  they  believed  simply  in  their  god. 
They  had  also  the  virtue  of  love ;  that  is  to  say,  by  the 
very  fact  of  their  concentration  they  had  the  love  of  one's 
nation  which  engenders  hatred  of  the  rest  of  the  human 
race,  odkim  generis  humani,  as  Tacitus  will  say.  They 
had  also  hope,  besides  faith  and  hatred — the  hope  that 
their  god  will  give  them  what  they  desire.  Thus  they 
created  the  trinity  of  the  three  theological  virtues :  Faith, 
Hope,  and  Hatred. 

Such  is  the  hymn-book  in  which  the  Jews  sang  their 
ideal  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century.  Some  of 
the  psalms  are  earlier,  and  date  from  the  time  of  the  later 
prophets ;  some  are  later,  and  seem  to  have  been  written 
during  the  guerilla  warfare  of  the  Machabees.  But  they 
have  a  great  future.  Composed  by  the  lowliest  among 
the  sons  of  this  lowly  people,  they  will  become  more  and 
more  a  national  book,  in  proportion  as  the  Jewish  nation 
becomes  humbler — until  the  day  when  the  book  of  faith, 
hope,  and  hatred  of  the  oppressed  Jews  becomes  the  book 
of  faith,  hope,  and  hatred  of  all  the  oppressed  in  the 
world. 

To  make  it  the  book  of  pious  souls  in  modern  times 
one  has  only  to  forget  its  historical  origin.  Let  the 
terminology  be  taken  literally ;  let  it  be  unknown  that 
the  "  just "  of  the  psalms  are  the  Jews  of  the  popular 
traditionalist  party,  and  the  "  wicked "  are  the  Jews  of 
the  Hellenising  party  and  the  goim ;  let  the  "just"  stand 
for  believers,  and  the  "  wicked "  stand  for  unbelievers ; 
and  this  book  that  has  arisen,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century,  out  of  the  struggle  of  the  two  political 
parties  that  divided  Jerusalem,  will  have  experienced  the 


HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES  221 

lot  of  the  other  Jewish  books — it  will  be  internationalised. 

The  psalms  were  the  hymns  sung  in  the  Jewries  already 
scattered  over  the  Oriental  world  by  the  lowly  and  poor 
who  were  obsessed  with  the  thirst  for  vengeance,  and 
who,  too  weak  to  rise  in  revolt,  began  to  expect  from  their 
god  alone  the  fulfilment  of  their  sanguinary  dream.  They 
were  born  in  the  lower  depths  of  a  people  oppressed  by 
its  aristocrats,  who  found  comfort  in  their  wealth,  as 
well  as  by  the  pagan  peoples  who  environed  them  with 
their  power  and  their  disdain.  The  prophets  had 
anathematised  those  of  the  Jews  who  were  abandoning 
the  national  traditions  for  Hellenic  novelties.  The  psalms 
are  the  book  of  the  traditionalist  Jews ;  but  the  tradition- 
alist Jews  are  now  the  humble,  the  poor,  the  wretched, 
the  men  who  thirsted  for  vengeance.  They  call  them- 
selves the  "  meek  ";  and  it  means  that  they  accept  their 
reproach,  and  count,  not  on  their  own  arms,  but  on  their 
god,  to  avenge  them.  The  tenacious  and  obstinate  main- 
tenance of  their  confidence  will  ensure  its  success.  It  is 
the  monstrous  imperialism  of  these  eternally  vanquished, 
who  cease  not  to  dream  of  universal  dominion. 

The  religious  sentiment  of  modern  nations  has  not 
been  deceived.  It  sufficed  to  moderate  certain  expressions 
that  were  too  obviously  abominable  for  pious  souls  to  find 
in  the  psalms,  from  St.  Paul  to  Luther  and  on  to  our 
own  time,  the  hymn  of  humiliation  that  knows  no  refuge 
but  in  the  supernatural. 

We  have,  in  fact,  reached  the  time  when  the  pheno- 
menon of  religious  faith  is  born  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Through  exaggerating  its  powerlessness,  Jewish 
imperialism  has  come  to  the  despairing  surrender  of  itself 
into  the  hands  of  the  supernatural.  And  that  is,  in  the 
last  analysis,  the  definition  of  religious  faith. 

When  a  man,  a  people,  a  world,  has  known  the  greatest 
pride,  the  vastest  ambition,  and  the  wildest  hopes,  and 
some  pitiless  reality  persistently  mocks  the  pride,  un- 
ceasingly thwarts  the  ambition,  and  indefinitely  rebukes 


222  HYMNS  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUES 

the  hope,  this  man,  people,  or  world  can  do  no  more,  if  it 
has  the  strength  not  to  smrrender,  if  it  persists  in  willing, 
if  it  abandons  nothing  of  its  soul,  than  rely  on  and  await 
the  supernatural  occurrence  that  will  realise  its  hopes, 
crown  its  ambitions,  in  spite  of  a  coalition  of  the  universe, 
and,  breaking  the  power  of  the  enemy  at  one  stroke,  bring 
its  pride  to  triumph. 

Eeligious  faith  is  the  soul  of  man  expecting  nothing 
save  by  the  action  of  a  god.  It  is  based  on  two  facts  : 
the  powerlessness  of  man,  the  all-powerfulness  of  god. 
Faith  is  the  reliance  of  man's  powerlessness  on  the  divine 
omnipotence. 

The  Greek  and  Eoman  religions  were  cults ;  but, 
properly  speaking,  they  never  knew  this  element  of 
religious  feeling.  Never  did  Greeks  or  Eomans,  however 
superstitious  they  may  have  been,  yield  themselves  to  the 
supernatural.  To  create  religious  faith  there  was  needed, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  immeasurable  persistence  of  the 
Jewish  soul,  and,  on  the  other,  the  extraordinary  series  of 
situations  that  kept  it  in  ceaseless  oppression.  Religious 
faith  is  the  creation  of  Judaism. 


Chapter  II. 

THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

It  would  be  useless  to  seek  in  the  strong  serenity  of 
Greek  and  Latin  literatures  anything  that  recalls  the 
prophets,  the  psalms,  and  especially  the  apocalypses. 

In  the  Grseco-Roman  world  nature  rules.  There  is 
no  supernatural,  because  there  is  only  nature  symbolised 
in  human  forms.  From  the  earliest  beginning  the  gods 
of  Homer  are  heroes,  and  his  heroes  are  gods.  Energies 
unfold  amid  the  harmonious  development  of  myths ;  they 
bear  the  names  of  deities,  just  as  to-day  they  bear 
scientific  names ;  but  they  are  never  more  than  natural 
energies.  While  the  orientals  kneel  before  a  god  who  is 
outside  nature,  a  god  who  rules  them  as  a  sultan  rules 
his  enslaved  people,  the  pre-Socratic  philosophers  study 
the  secret  of  the  physical  laws  by  which  the  cosmos  is 
organised.  Socrates  discovers  the  human  soul.  The 
metaphysic  that  Plato  builds  up  is  the  masterpiece  of 
dialectics.  Aristotle  lays  the  foundation  of  all  the 
sciences,  and  writes,  four  centuries  before  the  present 
era,  two  thousand  three  hundred  years  ago : — 

"All  that  occurs  proceeds  from  one  principle  to 
another."  ^ 

Seneca,  heir  of  the  Greek  scholars,  will  say  later  : — 

"What  is  destiny?  The  necessity  of  all  things  and 
all  actions  (necessitatem  rerum  omnium  actionumque) ."  ^ 

The  Greek  tragic  poets  had  known  nothing  finer  in  the 
thoughts  of  the  people  than  the  spectacle  of  heroic  souls 
struggling   against   the   fatality    of    the    eternal    future. 

^  On  the  Parts  of  Animals,  I.  1-13. 
'  QucBstiones  iiaturales,  ii.  36. 

223 


224  THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES 

Rome  appears.  She  brings  into  the  world  the  highest 
type  of  humanity,  strength,  and  self-possession,  "  homo 
moderatus  et  gravis  " — man  master  of  himself  and  the 
universe.  To  contemplate  the  world,  to  detect  its  rhythm, 
to  love  life,  to  rejoice  in  the  sun,  to  cultivate  pleasure,  to 
turn  to  neither  of  those  excesses  which  men  call  debauch 
and  asceticism,  fear  or  rashness,  and  that  lessen  oneself, 
to  be  a  strong  and  calm  soul,  to  gather  the  fruit  that  the 
earth  offers  you — that  was  the  wisdom  of  Greece  and  the 
virtue  of  Rome. 

To  expect  of  an  omnipotent  god  the  fulfilment  of  their 
exaggerated  dreams — that  was  Jewish  piety ;  and  that 
we  find  praised  in  the  prophets  and  the  psalms.  When 
these  dreams  had  reached  the  stage  of  paroxysm,  when, 
aft3r  waiting  several  centuries,  their  patience  and  anger 
were  exhausted,  the  apocalypse  appeared.  That  the  Jew 
might  still  live  on,  it  said  to  him  : — 

"  Know  in  what  wise  thy  god  will  ensure  thy  triumph 
to-morrow." 

The  apocalypse  is  a  revelation ;  but  it  is  a  different 
revelation  from  those  that  abound  in  the  prophets  and 
psalms.  The  prophets  and  the  psalms  had  said  to  the 
Jews : — 

"  Jahveh  has  promised  you  revenge  and  victory  :  count 
on  revenge  and  victory." 

The  apocalypse  says  : — 

"  The  event  will  happen  in  so  many  days,  in  such  and 
such  a  way." 

After  the  death  of  Simeon  the  Just  the  hostility 
between  the  popular  traditionalist  party  and  the  Hellenis- 
ing  aristocracy  had  increased  constantly  at  Jerusalem. 
The  episodes  of  the  struggle  are  not  found  in  history 
until  the  time  when  it  degenerates  into  civil  war — that 
is  to  say,  a  little  after  the  year  175,  the  date  of  the 
accession  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  in  Syria.  This  civil 
war  is  called  by  modern  histories — Israelite,  Protestant, 


THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES  225 

or  Catholic — the  "  persecution  "  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes, 
and  the  "  war  of  independence  "  of  the  Machabees.  Our 
authorities,  the  historian  Flavins  Josephus  ("  Jewish 
Antiquities  "  and  "  The  Jewish  War  ")  and  the  first  two 
Books  of  the  Machabees  (especially  the  second)  do  not 
agree  in  their  account  of  the  events ;  they  agree,  how- 
ever, in  representing  the  Hellenising  party  as  appealing 
to  King  Antiochus  to  crush  the  traditionalist  party. 

A  certain  Onias  (or  Menelaus),  whether  or  no  he  was 
brother  to  the  high-priest  Jesus  (or  Jason),  takes  the  lead 
of  the  Hellenising  party ;  it  must  be  noted  that  at  this 
time  the  Jews  have  two  names,  a  Jewish  and  a  Greek 
name.  Menelaus  is  beaten.  He  then  goes,  "  with  the 
chief  men  of  his  party,  to  King  Antiochus,  and  begs  him 
to  enter  Judaea."  ^ 

The  first  Book  of  the  Machabees  is  not  less  explicit. 
"In  those  days,"  it  says,  "there  went  out  of  Israel 
children  of  iniquity  who  counselled  thus :  Let  us  go  and 

make  alliance  with  the  nations Then   some   of   the 

people  went  and  sought  the  King  Antiochus."  ^ 

Antiochus  easily  made  himself  master  of  Jerusalem, 
"  because  the  faction  of  Menelaus  opened  the  gates  to 
him";^  he  killed  several  of  the  opposite  party,  and,  of 
course,  profited  by  the  opportunity  to  sack  the  town. 

Now  masters  of  Jerusalem,  the  partisans  of  Menelaus 
give  free  rein  to  their  Hellenistic  tendencies.  They  had 
told  Antiochus,  says  Josephus,  "  that  they  had  determined 
to  embrace  his  religion  and  the  Greek  way  of  living,  and 
they  asked  him  to  let  them  build  a  gymnasium  in  Jeru- 
salem. He  allowed  them.  Then  they  took  from  them- 
selves the  marks  of  circumcision,  so  that  they  could  not 
be  distinguished  from  the  Greeks,  even  when  they  ran 
and  wrestled  naked ;  and,  thus  forsaking  the  laws  of  their 
fathers,  they  differed  in  nothing  from  foreigners."  * 


*  TJie  Jewish  War,  i.  1.  '^  1  Machabees,  i.  12-14. 

'  Jewish  Antiquities,  xii.  7.  ■*  Jewish  Antiquities,  xii.  6. 

Q 


226  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

It  would  be  impossible  to  carry  Hellenising  further. 

The  trouble  continued.  The  orthodox  Jews  saw  with 
horror  the  triumph  of  Greek  ways,  and  the  gymnasium 
was  not  the  smallest  source  of  scandal  to  them.  The  two 
parties  came  to  blows,  and  there  were  battles  on  the 
streets  of  Jerusalem. 

After  two  years  the  Hellenising  party,  gravely  threatened 
by  the  popular  party,  again  summoned  the  king  of  Syria 
to  help  them.  He  had  just  been  stopped  in  the  midst  of 
an  expedition  against  Egypt  by  the  Roman  legate  Popilius; 
the  famous  anecdote  of  the  circle  of  Popilius  will  be 
remembered.  Did  Antiochus  wish  to  vent  his  impotent 
anger  on  Jerusalem,  as  has  been  said?  It  is  possible. 
But  he  certainly  wanted  to  restore  peace  in  a  town  in 
which  there  were  disturbances  daily,  by  exterminating 
the  anti-Hellenising  Jews  and  abolishing  Judaism ;  and 
he  was  invited  by  the  Hellenising  Jews. 

The  moderate  Hellenising  Jews  wanted  only  a  certain 
modification  of  the  rigours  of  the  Mosaic  law ;  they  thought 
only  of  adjusting  the  cult  of  Jahveh  to  fresh  needs.  But 
when  we  recollect  the  spirit  of  ferocious  exclusiveness,  the 
intolerance,  the  quarrels  and  furies  of  the  rigourist  party, 
when  we  picture  these  demagogues  roaring  after  the  rich 
and  powerful,  invoking  at  every  moment  the  vengeance  of 
Jahveh,  the  more  fanatical  as  they  spoke  in  the  name  of 
their  god,  we  are  not  astonished  that  aristocrats  who  were 
bent  on  luxury  and  pleasure,  captivated  with  Greek  ways, 
and  ready  to  take  any  measure  to  secure  the  continuance 
of  their  privileges,  could  in  their  exasperation  dream  of 
ruining  for  ever  the  popular  fanaticism,  even  if  it  involved 
the  destruction  of  the  very  name  of  the  god  which  it 
perpetuated.  Moreover,  what  did  it  matter  whether  they 
worshipped  Jahveh  or  Jupiter,  if  they  gained  tranquillity 
by  the  change  ?  Let  us  remember  that  certain  children 
of  Israel  had  tried  to  obliterate  on  themselves  the  marks 
of  circumcision.  Had  they  not  opened  a  Greek  gymnasium 
in  the  holy  city '?     Did  they  not  day  after  day  flout  the 


THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES  227 

precepts  of  the  Mosaic  law  ?  Were  they  not  presently 
about  to  "  sacrifice  to  the  idols  and  violate  the  Sabbath  "  ? ' 
Finally,  had  they  not  offered  to  embrace  the  religion  of  the 
pagan  Antiochus  ? 

Whether  or  no  he  went  beyond  the  desires  of  the 
Hellenisers,  Antiochus  was  terrible.  The  Syrian  army 
entered  Jerusalem  a  second  time,  and  massacred  thousands 
of  Jews.  Looting  was  universal.  The  city  was  brought 
under  an  iron  yoke.  The  king  of  Syria  planted  a  Mace- 
donian garrison  in  it,  and  built  a  fortress  that  commanded 
the  temple.  Lastly,  whether  or  no  he  went  beyond  the 
demands  of  his  inviters,  he  set  up  everywhere  altars  to  the 
pagan  gods,  forbade  the  celebration  of  the  Mosaic  festivals 
and  ceremonies,  ordered  the  destruction  of  the  sacred 
books,  and — supreme  abomination — he  had  a  statue  of  '; 
Jupiter  Olympus  raised  in  the  temple  of  Jahveh.  This 
took  place  on  the  15th  of  kislev,  the  month  of  November 
of  the  year  168  before  the  present  era.  \ 

Never  had  such  a  danger  threatened  Judaism  before. 
The  hopes  of  three  centuries  seemed  to  be  abortive.  An 
interruption  of  the  Jewish  cult  meant  the  destruction  of 
the  Jewish  nation ;  the  raising  of  a  statue  of  Jupiter  in 
the  temple  of  Jahveh  meant  the  defeat  of  the  Jewish  soul 
by  the  Greek  world.  The  miseries  and  humiliations  of 
the  preceding  centuries  had  not  abolished  one  jot  of  the 
ancient  promises,  so  long  as  Jerusalem  remained  a  heart 
from  which  Judaism  continued  to  draw  life ;  now  it 
seemed  that  the  heart  was  destroyed. 

The  hour  of  the  apocalypses  had  struck.  The  first  was 
that  of  Daniel. 

For  some  time  a  rumour  spread  among  the  people 
about  the  temple  and  in  the  synagogues.  It  was  said 
that  they  had  found  the  writings  of  an  ancient  prophet  of 
the  time  of  Nabuchodonosor  and  the  Deportation ;  his 
name  was  Daniel ;  god  had  directed  that  his  prophecies 

1  Daniel  himself  (xi.  30)  relates  that  Antiochus  is  acting  with  those  of 
the  Jews  who  "were  forsaking  the  holy  alliance." 


228  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

should  remain  sealed  until  the  day  when  the  events  he 
foretold  were  about  to  happen ;  and  this  day  had  come. 
Some  pages  of  the  prophecy  had  already  been  read  in 
pious  gatherings ;  how  the  prophet  and  two  of  his  com- 
panions, although  honoured  with  the  favour  of  the  king 
Nabuchodonosor,  had  resisted  his  orders,  and  refused  to 
pollute  themselves  with  food  forbidden  by  the  Mosaic  law, 
and  how  God  had  rewarded  them.* 

It  seems  possible  to  discover  in  what  circumstances 
each  part  of  the  book  of  Daniel  was  successively  composed 
and  published.  The  first  chapter  is  evidently  earlier  than 
the  profanation  of  the  temple.  What  do  we  find  in  it  ? 
Young  Jews  who  occupy  a  high  position  at  the  court  of 
king  Nabuchodonosor  and  reconcile  the  duties  of  their 
office  with  the  duties  of  their  religion.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  this  piece  was  written  to  teach  the  Jews  that  they 
must  never  sacrifice  the  one  to  the  other ;  the  persecution 
has  not  yet  broken  out,  but  it  is  difficult  for  the  tradi- 
tionalist Jews  to  be  faithful  to  their  cult  amid  the  advance 
of  Hellenism. 

Now  the  era  of  tragedy  begins.  The  army  of  Antiochus 
has  invaded  the  city  ;  the  Hellenisers  triumph  ;  there  is 
general  consternation  among  the  men  of  the  traditionalist 
party.     A  second  book  then  spreads.'* 

It  is  said  to  be  a  new  chapter  of  the  prophecies  of  the 
ancient  Daniel ;  and  the  wretched  Jews,  who  are  sur- 
rounded by  the  Hellenisers,  learn  with  astonishment  that 
king  Nabuchodonosor  once  had  a  dream,  and  the  prophet 
Daniel  foretold  to  him  that  his  empire  would  pass  away, 
and  that  another  empire  after  him  (that  of  the  Medes) 
would  pass  away,  and  that  a  third  (that  of  the  Persians) 
would  likewise  pass  away,  and  that  a  fourth  (that  of  the 
Greeks)  would  in  turn  be  broken  by  the  hand,  not  of  man, 
but  of  Jahveh. 

And  in  those  days  the  god  of  heaven  shall  set  up  an 
'  Daniel  i.  Daniel  ii. 


THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES  229 

empire  which  shall  never  be  destroyed,  and  of  which  the 
kingdom  shall  not  be  left  to  other  people  ;  it  shall  break 
in  pieces  and  consume  all  other  empires,  and  it  shall  stand 
for  ever.^ 

The  worse  the  trouble  becomes,  the  more  splendidly  do 
the  old  promises  resound  in  the  ears  of  the  Jerusalemites. 

At  each  new  blow  that  strikes  Judaism,  the  author  of 
the  prophecies  of  Daniel  replies  with  a  new  book.  The 
statue  of  Jupiter  Olympus  rises  in  the  middle  of  the 
temple,  on  the  altar  of  Jahveh  ;  and,  wonderful  to  relate, 
a  third  mashal  of  the  ancient  Daniel  appears.  What  do 
they  learn  from  it?  That  once,  four  hundred  years 
before,  king  Nabuchodonosor  had  ordered  that  a  great 
idol,  a  golden  statue  of  sixty  cubits,  should  be  set  up,  and 
every  one  should  worship  it ;  that  all — peoples,  nations, 
and  tongues — had  fallen  on  their  knees  and  obeyed  ;  that 
three  Jewish  young  men  alone  refused ;  that  Nabu- 
chodonosor in  a  rage  had  them  thrown  into  a  seven-times 
heated  furnace,  and  the  fire  did  not  hurt  them  ;  that  they 
walked  about  unhurt  amid  the  flames.^ 

Who  could  fail  to  recognise  the  allusion  ?  Is  not  the 
idol  erected  by  Nabuchodonosor  the  idol  erected  by 
Antiochus  Epiphanes '?  Is  not  the  poet,  in  telling  how 
the  three  Jewish  young  men  resisted  the  king  of  Babylon 
and  were  rewarded  for  it,  teaching  his  contemporaries 
that  they  must  resist  the  king  of  Syria,  and  they  in  turn 
will  be  rewarded  for  their  holy  rebellion  ? 

The  persecution  becomes  more  terrible.  The  soldiers 
of  Antiochus  further  the  Hellenisation  of  Judaea  with 
implacable  zeal.  Not  only  is  the  altar  of  Jahveh 
abolished  and  his  cult  forbidden,  but  the  cult  of  the 
Greek  gods  is  enforced.  Many  Jews  who  had  hitherto 
been  faithful  to  the  old  national  traditions  now  fall  away 
through  fear  ;  the  more  stubborn  conceal  themselves  ;  a 
flood  of  shame  and    blood  rises  about    the   temple;    the 

^  Daniel  ii.  4-1.  *  Daniel  iii.  1-30. 


230  THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES 

traditionalist  Jews  seem  to  be  lost ;  Hellenism  seems 
definitely  to  have  triumphed.  At  this  time  the  fourth 
prophecy  appears.  The  new  book  is  brought  to  the 
synagogues  where  the  Jews  meet  in  secret.  It  says  that 
king  Nabuchodonosor  was,  for  not  recognising  the  god  of 
the  Jews,  driven  from  among  men  for  seven  years,  "  and 
did  eat  grass,  as  oxen,  and  his  body  was  wet  with  the 
dew  of  heaven,  till  his  hairs  were  grown  like  eagles' 
feathers,  and  his  nails  like  birds'  claws." 

Other  prophecies  follow.  There  is  a  festival  of  king 
Balthasar,  son  of  Nabuchodonosor,  to  which  a  thousand 
lords  are  invited,  with  their  wives  and  concubines,  with 
the  vessels  of  gold  and  silver  stolen  from  the  temple  at 
Jerusalem ;  and  suddenly  "  came  forth  the  fingers  of  a 
man's  hand,  and  wrote  over  against  the  lamp  on  the 
plaster  of  the  wall,"  and  Daniel  explains  it : — 

Numbered !  God  hath  numbered  thy  kibgdom,  and 
finished  it.  Weighed  !  Thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances, 
and  art  found  wanting.  Divided !  Thy  kingdom  is 
divided,  and  given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians.' 

The  sixth  prophecy  of  Daniel  '^  teaches  the  Jews,  as  the 
third  does  but  less  happily,  that  they  should  refuse  to 
worship  any  other  god  than  Jahveh.  Thus,  one  after  the 
other,  like  a  succession  of  defiances  to  the  awful  calamities 
and  threats,  the  second,  third,  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth 
prophecies  of  Daniel  had  arisen  from  the  depths  of  the 
proscribed  old  party. 

At  this  time  there  is  a  reign  of  terror  in  Jerusalem  ; 
surrounded  by  the  troops  of  Antiochus,  the  Hellenisers 
triumph,  possibly,  beyond  all  that  they  had  desired. 
Menelaus,  the  abominable  high-priest,  lets  the 
impure  blood  of  swine  pollute  the  courts  consecrated  to 
Jahveh.  From  that  day,  even  before  the  next  four 
prophecies  had  appeared,  the  first  six  had  an  immediate 
effect.  The  old  Judaic  party  draws  together,  finds  a 
leader,  and  lifts  up  its  head. 

*  Daniel  v.  5  and  25-28.  "^  Daniel  vi. 


THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES  231 

One  day,  in  a  small  town  of  Judaea,  some  Jews  of  the 
rigourist  party,  a  certain  Mathathias  and  his  sons,  slew  a 
Hellenising  Jew  and  a  company  of  Syrians  who  came  to 
his  defence.  To  escape  punishment,  they  fled  to  the 
mountains ;  other  Jews  of  the  oppressed  party  joined 
them ;  the  movement  grew.  The  rebels  found  their 
enemies  not  strong  enough  to  reduce  them.  They 
gathered  strength,  organised  the  revolt,  formed  a  sort  of 
army  ;  Judas  Machabasus,  one  of  the  sons  of  Mathathias, 
took  command  of  it.  Antiochus  was  called  elsewhere  by 
another  war ;  the  representative  he  sent  against  the 
rebellious  Jews  was  beaten ;  and,  in  164,  Judas 
Machabaeus  took  Jerusalem  and  solemnly  purified  the 
temple.  He  could  not,  however,  force  the  citadel  in 
which  the  Hellenisers  took  refuge.  Thus  the  victory 
hung  undecided  between  the  two  parties,  and  the  struggle 
went  on  with  alternating  success  and  defeat. 

The  last  four  prophecies  of  Daniel  seem  to  have  been 
composed  during  the  first  years  of  the  Machabsean 
movement.  The  poet  and  patriot  who  hid  behind  the 
mask  of  the  ancient  Daniel  did  not  think  his  work  was 
complete  as  long  as  there  was  still  courage  to  restore  and 
to  exalt ;  and  he  put  forth  in  succession  the  four  great 
apocalyptic  visions  by  which  Jahveh  unveiled  to  his 
spokesman,  and  he  to  the  Jewish  people,  the  future 
destiny  of  the  universe. 

We  must  not  forget  that  with  Daniel  we  are  supposed 
to  be  in  the  days  of  Nabuchodonosor  and  the  deportation 
to  Babylon.  The  literary  procedure  that  had  been 
adopted  by  the  authors  of  the  books  of  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel, 
and  the  two  Isaiahs  was  followed  by  the  author  of  the 
book  of  Daniel ;  that  the  book  is  pseudonymous  is  now 
recognised  by  every  single  student  of  any  degree  of 
independence.  They  unanimously  recognise  in  the 
book  what  it  really  is — a  work  born  of  the  upheavals 
of  the  year  168  and  of  the  first  efforts  at  recovery  that 
followed. 


232  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

The  four  great  apocalyptic  visions  of  Daniel  are,  there- 
fore, four  series  of  predictions,  which  start  with  the  days 
of  Nabuchodonosor,  extend  over  a  period  of  four  hundred 
years,  and,  as  their  final  goal,  reach  the  days  of  the 
writer. 

The  history  of  the  Jews  and  of  their  successive  masters 
is  thus  related  from  Nabuchodonosor  to  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes,  under  the  form  of  predictions.  The  predictions, 
however,  which  concern  the  period  after  Nabuchodonosor 
and  the  Restoration  are  vague,  and  frequently  inexact, 
the  author  of  the  book  of  Daniel  not  being  a  fully-informed 
historian.  They  become  more  precise  gradually  as  they 
approach  the  year  164  ;  the  last  events  recorded  are  the 
wars  of  the  Ptolemies  and  Seleucids,  the  deeds  and  actions 
of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the  profanation  of  the  temple 
and  interruption  of  the  cult,  and  then,  in  the  last,  the 
revolt,  the  first  successes,  and  the  reverses  of  Judas 
Machabaeus.  At  that  point  the  so-called  predictions 
necessarily  end,  and  the  real  predictions,  which  the  event 
was  unfortunately  not  to  realise,  begin.  We  can  imagine 
their  nature  :  Jahveh  intervenes,  the  enemies  of  Israel  are 
annihilated,  the  Jewish  people  is  triumphant. 

First  Vision. — Out  of  the  sea  come  four  great  beasts, 
which  the  prophet  describes  in  full ;  they  are  the  four 
empires  which  were,  in  succession,  to  oppress  the  people 
of  Jahveh. 

But,  behold,  thrones  were  set  up,  and  the  Ancient  of 
Days  did  sit,'  whose  garment  was  white  as  snow,  and  the 
hair  of  his  head  like  pure  wool ;  his  throne  was  of  fiery 
flames,  and  his  wheels  a  burning  fire. 

A  fiery  stream  issued  and  came  forth  from  before  him  ; 
thousand  thousands  ministered  unto  him,  and  ten  thousand 
times  ten  thousand  stood  before  him ;  the  judgment  was 
set,  and  the  books  were  opened.'* 

I  beheld  even  till  the  beast  was  slain,  and  his  body 
destroyed,  and  given  to  the  burning  flame. 

*  Jahveh  himself.  ^  The  scene  of  Jahveh's  judgment. 


THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES  233 

As  concerning  the  rest  of  the  beasts,  they  had  their 
dominion  taken  away  ;  for  a  length  of  life  had  been  given 
them  for  a  season  and  a  time. 

I  saw  in  the  night  visions,  and,  behold,  one  like  the 
son  of  man  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,'  and  came  to 
the  Ancient  of  Days,  and  they  brought  him  near  before  him. 

And  there  was  given  him  dominion,  and  glory,  and  a 
kingdom,  that  all  peoples,  nations,  and  languages  should 
serve  him ;  his  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion, 
which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  his  kingdom  that  which 
shall  not  be  destroyed.'^ 

Second  Vision. — Beasts  v^hich  occupy  the  earth  fight 
with  each  other,  wresting  the  dominion  from  each  other, 
until  the  last  of  them  destroys  the  very  sanctuary  of  god. 
But  let  them  be  patient ;  the  holy  place  will  be  restored.* 

Third  Vision. — While  Daniel  meditates  on  the  pro- 
phecies of  Jeremiah,  Gabriel,  an  angel  of  Jahveh,  appears 
to  him,  and  explains  to  him  the  hidden  meaning  of  the 
words  that  Jahveh  had  uttered  by  the  mouth  of  his 
servant  in  the  days  of  Nabuchodonosor  and  the  taking  of 
Jerusalem.  In  seventy  years,  Jeremiah  had  said,^  Jeru- 
salem will  be  restored  and  glorified.  Now,  these  seventy 
years  are  seventy  sabbaths  of  years,  seventy  weeks  of 
years — that  is  to  say,  four  hundred  and  ninety  years. 
The  first  entry  of  Nabuchodonosor  into  Jerusalem  was  in 
the  year  599.  To  reach  his  figure,  the  angel  of  Jahveh 
overlaps  the  first  seven  sevens,  or  the  first  49  years  ;  49 
years  from  490  leaves  441  years ;  and  if  we  then  calculate 
441  years  from  the  year  599,  we  reach  the  year  158.  In 
the  year  158,  therefore — let  us  say,  about  the  year  158, 
as  the  Jewish  books  know  nothing  of  mathematical 
accuracy — or  some  years  after  the  profanation  of  the 
temple  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the  divine  promise  will 
be  fulfilled.' 

*  The  king  who   descends  from  David,  or   the   people  of  Israel    itself 
Bymbolised  by  a  man. 

^  Daniel  vii.  9-14.  *  Daniel  viii.  *  Jeremiah  xxv.  12  ;  xxix.  10. 

*  Daniel  ix.      We    have   followed   the    calculation    of    Reuss,    Bible, 
Vol.  VII. 


234  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

This  vision  might  be  called  :  The  art  of  adjusting  dates. 
But  let  us  not  smile  at  the  simple  fraud  that  was  to 
restore  the  hope  of  a  crushed  people. 

Fourth  Vision. — The  last  piece  put  forward  by  the 
author  of  the  prophecies  of  Daniel  was  the  most  explicit. 
The  war  between  the  traditionalist  and  the  Hellenising 
parties  dragged  on ;  the  traditionalists  were  suffering 
from  discouragement ;  the  voice  of  the  prophet  Daniel, 
announcing  a  speedy  deliverance,  must  give  a  supreme 
assurance  of  veracity  to  the  cruelly  tried  Jews.  If  a 
series  of  precise  predictions,  which  had  been  uttered  four 
hundred  years  before,  seemed  to  have  been  fulfilled  to  the 
letter,  was  it  not  a  proof  that  the  approaching  deliverance 
would  be  equally  and  speedily  accomplished  ? 

This  is  the  prophecy. 

In  the  third  year  of  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  an  angel 
appeared  to  Daniel  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris.  It  may 
have  been  an  angel,  or  god  himself ;  for  the  description 
seems  to  apply  to  Jahveh. 

I  saw  a  man  clothed  in  linen,  whose  loins  were  girded 
with  fine  gold.  His  body  was  like  the  beryl,  his  face  as 
the  appearance  of  lightning,  his  eyes  as  lamps  of  fii*e,  and 
his  arms  and  his  feet  like  the  appearance  of  polished 
brass ;  and  the  noise  of  his  words  like  the  noise  of  a 
multitude.* 

At  this  vision  Daniel  is  filled  with  fear,  but  recovers. 
Then  he,  the  pretended  contemporary  of  Cyrus,  tells,  in 
the  prophetic  style,  in  fuller  and  fuller  detail,  the  future 
history  of  the  Persians,  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  of 
the  successors  of  Alexander,  especially  the  Ptolemies  and 
Seleucids. 

The  king  of  the  north '^  shall  come,  and  cast  up  a 
mound,  and  take  a  strong  city;^  and  the  troops  of  the 
south*  shall  not  withstand And  he  shall  give  to  the 

'  Daniel  x.  5-6.  ^  Antiochus  the  Groat,  king  of  Syria. 

'  Sidon.  *  The  Egyptians,  until  then  masters  of  Sidon. 


THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES  235 

king  of  the  south  a  daughter.' And  he  shall  turn  his 

face  unto  the  isles  ;^  and  shall  take  many.^ 

It  is  easy  to  understand  the  admiration  of  the  Jews  in 
the  days  of  Menelaus  for  predictions  that  were  so  magni- 
ficently fulfilled.  They  would  listen  with  confidence 
when  Daniel  continues  : — 

And  at  that  time  shall  Michael  stand  up,  the  great 
prince  which  standeth  for  the  children  of  thy  people.* 

Among  the  angels  who  surround  Jahveh,  and  of  which 
each  one  is  charged  to  protect  one  of  the  peoples  of 
the  earth,  Michael  is  the  angel-protector  of  the  people 
of  Israel. 

Daniel  asks  how  long  it  will  be  before  the  deliverance 
comes.     The  angel  replies  : — 

From  the  time  that  the  daily  sacrifice  shall  be  taken 
away,  and  the  abomination  that  niaketh  desolate*  set  up, 
there  shall  be  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety  days. 

That  is  to  say,  three  years  and  a  half.  The  capture 
and  purification  of  the  temple  by  Judas  Machabaeus 
took  place  three  years  after  the  profanation.  Is  Daniel 
approximately  fixing  the  victory  of  Judas  Machabseus,  or 
promising  that  six  months  after  this  first  great  success 
all  their  hopes  will  be  realised  ?  It  is  useless  to  press 
the  passage ;  let  us  see  the  drift  of  the  prediction  : — 

"  From  the  day  when  the  statue  of  Jupiter  sullies  the 
temple  to  the  day  when  Jahveh  will  hand  over  the  world 
to  the  Jewish  people  will  be  a  thousand  two  hundred  and 
ninety  days." 

To  his  discouraged  compatriots,  in  the  midst  of 
massacre  and  pillage,  of  alternating  success  and  defeat, 
after  the  supreme  catastrophe  of  the  abolition  of  the  law, 
the  interruption  of  the  cult,  the  surrender  of  the  sanctuary 
to  a  hostile  god,  the  apocalypse  serenely  declares  that  the 
term  is  fixed  and  the  days  are  numbered ;  that  after  three 

*  Cleopatra,  daughter  of  Autiochus,  married  to  the  king  of  Egypt. 

2  The  Archipelago.  ^  Danielxi.  15-18.  *  Daniel  xii.  1. 

s  The  statue  of  Jupiter  in  the  temple  of  Jahveh.  ®  Daniel  xii.  11. 


236  THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES 

years  and  a  half  revenge  and  triumph  will  be  brought  by 
the  angel  of  Jahveh.  We  need  not  ask  if  the  Jewish 
soul  will  sink  into  utter  despair  when  the  three  years  and 
a  half  are  over ;  minds  that  are  so  terribly  hallucinated 
will  be  able  at  once  to  invent  explanations  of  the  delay, 
to  adjust  the  dates,  to  make  the  calculation  start  from  a 
different  point,  to  interpret  the  word  "week"  as  "three 
months,"  and  translate  the  word  "  month  "  into  "  year." 
The  book  will  have  done  its  work. 

More  than  any  of  the  prophetic  books,  the  book  of 
Daniel  is  a  book  of  promises.  The  Jews  shall  possess 
the  earth ;  their  empire  shall  destroy  the  other  empires, 
and  shall  never  be  destroyed ;  it  shall  be  a  kingdom  for 
ever.  No  doubt  is  tolerated.  Like  the  psalms,  the 
apocalypses  promise  the  Jews  universal  dominion.  The 
translations  calls  it  "the  kingdom  of  the  holy";  the 
"  holy  "  are  the  Qedoshim,  men  "  consecrated  "  to  Jahveh 
— that  is  to  say,  the  people  of  Jahveh.  What  it  really 
means  is,  in  the  material  sense,  to  take  and  hold  for  ever 
the  place  of  Nabuchodonosor,  Cyrus,  and  Alexander ; 
presently  they  will  add  Caesar. 

Like  most  of  the  Jewish  books,  and  better  than  any 
of  them,  the  book  of  Daniel  is  a  philosophy  of  history. 
The  history  of  the  world,  or  of  those  peoples  who  are 
known  to  the  writer,  is  represented  as  leading  up  to  a 
unique  goal,  the  triumph  of  the  Jewish  people.  The 
idea  was  to  have  a  great  future.  Christian  literature  will 
adopt  it,  merely  putting  Christianity  in  the  place  of 
Judaism.  Bossuet  is  but  reproducing  it  in  his  "  Discourse 
on  Universal  History." 

Like  the  prophets — Ezekiel,  Zechariah,  and  the  two 
Isaiahs — and  even  more  strongly,  the  book  of  Daniel 
opens  out  the  perspective,  at  once  terrible  and  reassuring, 
of  the  period  of  increasingly  cruel  calamities  which,  by 
the  will  of  Jahveh,  must  precede  the  final  triumph  of 
Judaism.  Jahveh  means  the  distress  to  be  at  its  height 
at  the  time  when  he  will  come  to  save  and  glorify  his 


THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES  237 

people.  What  a  comfort  for  the  Jew  who  has  been 
beaten  by  Antiochus  and  the  Hellenisers !  Later  this 
period  of  preliminary  terror  will  be  known  as  the  reign 
of  Antichrist.  From  this  time  it  becomes  the  necessary 
prologue  of  the  apocalyptic  program. 

First  of  all  Jewish  writers,  the  author  of  the  book  of 
Daniel  promises  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  Whether 
or  no  there  was  an  accession  of  Mazdaean  beliefs,  the 
idea  of  resurrection  was  too  necessary  logically  in  Judaism 
for  it  to  fail,  whether  imported  or  not.  Until  then  the 
Jews  had  hardly  considered  what  might  come  after 
death ;  the  rewards  and  punishments  were  of  this  world. 
Piety  was  rewarded  with  happiness  here  below ;  trans- 
gression of  the  law  of  Jahveh  was  punished  with 
unhappiness  here  below.  The  extreme  calamities  from 
which  the  popular  party  suffered  in  the  time  of  Antiochus 
were  so  glaring  a  violation  of  the  doctrine  that  piety  is 
rewarded  with  happiness,  that  the  Jews  were  bound  to 
think  of  happiness  beyond  this  world.  Jahveh  would 
presently  deliver  the  people  of  Israel,  punish  its  enemies, 
and  reward  his  servants ;  but  what  about  those  who  had 
been  slain  ?  They  will  rise  again  in  their  flesh.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  an  immortal  soul ;  the  Jews  did  not 
conceive  that  there  could  be  a  soul  distinct  from  the 
body.  It  is  a  question  of  the  resurrection  of  bodies,  in 
such  wise  that  all  the  children  of  Jahveh  "  shine  as  the 
brightness  of  the  firmament,  as  the  stars  for  ever  and 
ever." ' 

Lastly — and  this  is  the  chief  character  of  the  apocalypses 
— the  book  of  Daniel  is  eschatological. 

Theologians  make  much  use  of  the  word  "  eschatology." 
Properly  speaking,  eschatology  means  the  science  or  the 
study  or  the  announcement  of  last  things.  If  the  word 
were  adopted  by  scientists,  we  should  give  the  name  of 
terrestrial  eschatology  to  the  study  of  the  conditions  in 

^  Daniel  xii.  3. 


238  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

which  the  earth  is  doomed  to  disappear,  either  by  the 
natural  action  of  its  chemical  components  or  by  the 
shock  of  a  heavenly  body,  or  from  any  other  natural 
cause ;  but  the  word  is  almost  exclusively  restricted  to 
religious  questions,  and  applies  generally  to  the  super- 
natural conditions  in  which  the  actual  world  was,  it  was 
believed,  doomed  to  perish. 

The  prophetic  books  themselves  announced  that, 
through  the  direct  intervention  of  Jahveh,  the  pagan 
empires  would  be  destroyed,  and  replaced  by  an  empire 
in  which  the  Jews  should  be  masters.  The  apocalypse 
of  Daniel  has  this  element  of  novelty,  that  it  knows  the 
plan  and  date  of  the  event,  sets  forth  its  course  in 
advance,  and  positively  fixes  the  day. 

Remember  the  great  vision  of  the  prophet,  in  which 
the  heavens  open  and  disclose,  amid  flames,  the  thrones 
of  Jahveh  and  his  angels ;  then  we  have  the  assizes,  the 
trial  of  mankind,  when  Michael,  the  angel-protector  of 
Israel,  intervenes,  and  offers  to  carry  out  the  sentence  of 
Jahveh  with  his  own  hand ;  the  pagans  will  be  exter- 
minated, the  Jews  glorified  and  rewarded  with  the 
dominion  of  the  world.  This  great  scene  will  be 
developed  by  the  successors  of  Daniel,  and  will  after- 
wards become  the  Last  Judgment  of  the  Christians ; 
but  in  the  second  century  before  our  era  it  means 
simply  the  taking  possession  of  the  world  by  the  Jewish 
people. 

When  will  it  take  place  ?  Must  they  still  wait  for 
centuries?  Daniel  has  counted  the  seventy  years,  or 
the  seventy  times  seven  years,  indicated  by  Jeremiah, 
and  has  calculated  that  the  term  is  at  hand.  But  a  mere 
declaration  is  not  enough ;  indeed,  elsewhere,  on  two 
occasions,  the  angel  declares  that  the  desolation  will  last 
for  "  a  time,  two  times,  and  half  a  time  "  ' — that  is  to  say, 
a  year,  two  years,  and  half-a-year,  or  three  years  and 
a-half. 

*  Daniel  vii.  25  and  xii.  7. 


THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES  239 

In  fine,  when  Daniel  pointedly  asks : — 

" Lord,  when  will  these  things  be? " 

The  angel  replies : — 

"  From  the  time  that  the  daily  sacrifice  shall  be  taken 
away,  and  the  abomination  that  maketh  desolate  set  up, 
there  shall  be  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety  days." 

That  is  eschatology — a  precise,  categorical  announce- 
ment of  the  great  final  upheaval  which  will  give  the  world 
to  the  Jewish  people.  The  ancient  covenant  between  the 
people  of  Israel  and  its  god  now  yields  its  extreme  con- 
sequences. In  order  that  Israel  may  obtain  glory  of  its 
god,  it  is  enough  to  trust  him.  Israel  is  faithful ;  more- 
over, how  could  a  people  groaning  under  such  misfortunes 
listen  to  restricted  promises  and  conditional  consolations  ? 
The  promise  has  been  made  absolute ;  it  is  to  be  fulfilled 
at  once.  With  its  temple  profaned,  its  law  destroyed,  and 
its  streets  wet  with  blood,  the  wretched  people  can  wait  no 
longer.  The  apocalypse  is  the  divine  promise  at  the  foot 
of  the  walls. 

In  saving  the  traditionalist  party,  the  book  of  Daniel 
had  saved  Judaism.  But  the  victory  was  not  complete, 
and  the  struggle  continued.  Doubtless  it  was  necessary, 
if  the  Jewish  soul  were  to  be  permanent,  that  it  should 
never  know  that  peace  in  which  energy  slumbers. 

As  we  have  said,  most  historians  have  left  to  the  events 
of  the  year  168  the  traditional  description  of  the  "  persecu- 
tion "  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  and  to  the  events  of  the 
following  period  that  of  "war  of  independence"  of  the 
Machabees.  These  descriptions,  which  are  really  biassed, 
must  be  explained,  if  not  corrected;  "  persecution  "  must 
be  understood  as  the  oppression  of  one  party  by  another 
party,  "  war  of  independence  "  as  the  revolt  of  the  party 
oppressed  against  the  oppressing  party.  Certainly  Judas 
Machabseus  and  his  brothers  had  enemies  in  the  kings  of 
Syria ;  when  Judas  Machabaeus  took  Jerusalem,  he  took 
it  from  the  officers  of   Antiochus ;    and   afterwards  his 


240  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

successors  wrested  the  independence  of  Judaea  from  the 
Syrian  kings.  But  these  Syrian  kings  were  the  patrons 
of  the  Hellenising  Jewish  party ;  the  Syrian  armies  were 
the  auxiliaries  of  that  party.  On  their  side  the  Machabees 
sought  and  obtained  the  help  of  the  Komans,  who  were 
then  penetrating  Asia ;  Judas  Machabaeus  was,  says 
Josephus,  the  first  Jew  to  enter  into  alliance  with  the 
Koman  Senate.^  The  Judaic  party  leaned  on  the  Romans, 
just  as  the  Hellenisers  leaned  on  the  Syrians. 

Mathathias,  father  of  Judas  Machabaeus,  had  traversed 
the  country  "  overthrowing  the  pagan  altars ;  he  forgave 
none  of  those  who  had  worshipped  idols  and  who  fell  into 
his  hands,  and  he  caused  uncircumcised  children  to  be 
circumcised.""  Judas  Machabaeus  "put  to  death  the 
Jews  who  had  violated  the  law  of  Moses," '  We  have 
nothing  but  massacres  of  populations,  with  looting  and 
burning.  Judas  Machabaeus  and  his  troops  threw  them- 
selves suddenly,  by  night,  on  Jewish  villages  that  were 
unfaithful  to  Jahveh  ;  he  set  them  in  flames,  and  slew 
the  apostates.  Jonathan,  his  successor,  exterminated 
the  impious  from  the  midst  of  Israel,  in  the  words 
of  Deuteronomy,  after  every  victory.  Whenever  the 
Machabees  took  a  non-Israelitic  country,  they  imposed 
circumcision  on  the  vanquished.  The  enemies  whom 
the  Machabees  fight  are  the  "  impious  Jews "  rather 
than  the  Syrians.  This  so-called  war  of  independence 
was  only  a  civil  war  in  which  each  of  the  two  parts 
summoned  the  foreigner  to  its  assistance,  a  religious  war 
that  witnessed  many  St.  Bartholomews.  The  Machabees 
have  no  right  to  the  aureole  which  tradition  has  been 
pleased  to  grant  them ;  Judaism  will  have  its  heroes, 
heroes  and  martyrs  of  Jewish  liberty,  two  centuries  later, 
at  the  time  of  the  great  revolt  against  Rome. 

The  civil  war  ended,  in  the  year  141,  with  the  triumph 
of   the   Machabees — that   is  to  say,  the  victory  of   the 

'  The  Jewish  War,  i.  1.  *  Jewish  Antiquities,  xii.  8. 

"  Jewish  A7itiq2iities,  xii.  9. 


THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES  241 

traditionalists  and  the  crushing  defeat  of  the  Hellenisers. 
In  141  Simeon,  brother  of  Judah,  took  the  last  place  in 
which  his  opponents  had  found  refuge,  and  they  were 
slain ;  he  had  himself  proclaimed  high-priest  and  prince 
of  the  Jews,  and  was  recognised  as  such,  not  only  by  the 
Eoman  Senate,  but  by  the  king  of  Syria.  But,  although 
the  defeat  of  the  Hellenisers  marks  the  end  of  the  civil 
war,  it  does  not  mean  the  end  of  the  struggle  of  the 
parties  which  distracted  Judaism ;  a  new  party  at  once 
took  the  place  of  that  which  had  just  disappeared. 

From  this  time  a  schism  had  occurred  among  the  con- 
querors, and  the  ancient  and  everlasting  antagonism  of 
the  aristocracy  and  the  democracy  appeared  again  in 
Judaism,  under  the  form  of  the  Sadducees  and  Pharisees. 

Partly  owing  to  Flavins  Josephus,  and  partly  under 
the  influence  of  the  Talmud,  an  exaggerated  importance 
has  been  given  to  questions  of  religious  controversy  in 
connection  with  the  antagonism  of  the  Sadducees  and 
Pharisees.  The  historian  who  proposes  to  set  the  work 
of  Judaism  in  its  historical  environment  cannot  explain  a 
two-century  old  antagonism  by  a  divergence  of  opinion  on 
the  resurrection.  The  traditionalist  party  was  bound,  in 
the  day  of  its  triumph,  to  have  the  fortune  of  every 
victorious  party;  the  powerful,  the  rich,  the  "upstarts," 
were  sure  to  form  a  new  aristocracy  in  it,  and  this  new 
aristocracy  was,  like  the  earlier  one,  bound  to  be  a  clerical 
aristocracy. 

The  Mosaic  law  did  not  suffer  any  other  rich  and 
powerful  persons,  beside  the  prince,  except  the  priests. 
The  priests  ruled  in  the  name  of  the  law ;  in  the  name  of 
the  law  the  tithes  and  tributes,  gathered  wherever  there 
were  Jews,  put  the  Jewish  fortune  in  their  hands  so 
exclusively  that  Simeon  had  had  to  have  himself  pro- 
claimed high-priest  at  the  same  time  as  prince  of  the 
Jews.  The  Sadducees,  though  originating  in  the  old 
popular  traditionalist  party,  took  the  place  of  the  former 
aristocratic   party   in   Jewish    society.     There   were   no 

E 


242  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

longer  Hellenisers  of  the  type  of  Menelaus ;  but  there 
was  always  a  clerical  nobility,  opulent,  conservative,  and 
haughty,  while  the  Pharisees,  below  and  opposed  to  them, 
were  a  sort  of  puritan  middle-class,  poor,  devout,  and 
powerful  on  account  of  its  numbers  and  its  influence  on 
the  lower  classes. 

From  the  day  when  the  Machabees  became  a  settled 
dynasty  they  oscillated  between  the  two  parties,  relying 
now  on  one,  now  on  the  other.  Gradually,  however,  the 
old  rigourist  and  democratic  party  adopted  once  more  the 
attitude  of  opposition-party,  never  again  to  abandon  it, 
and  the  aristocracy  assumed  the  logical  attitude  that 
befitted  a  caste  interested,  above  all,  in  adhering  to  the 
established  authority.  Always  fond  of  power,  the  Hellen- 
isers had  been  partisans  of  the  kings  of  Syria,  when  they 
had  been  the  masters  ;  when  the  Machabees  were  the 
recognised  sovereigns  of  an  independent  Judaea,  the  Sad- 
ducees  could  not  fail  to  be  on  good  terms  with  them ;  and 
they  would  not  fail,  later,  to  become  partisans  of  the 
Roman  government. 

The  Jewish  nation  might  appear  to  be  settled  under 
the  Machabees.  Imposing  its  rule  on  neighbouring 
countries,  and  at  length  reducing  Samaria,  its  ancient 
enemy,  it  obtained  frontiers  that  had  hardly  entered  the 
dreams  of  the  early  moslilim  of  the  Mosaic  books — 
Lebanon,  the  Arabian  desert,  and  the  Mediterranean. 
Jerusalem  was  in  the  end  capital  of  all  the  territory 
promised  by  Jahveh  to  the  patriarchs,  the  fathers  of 
Israel ;  Israel  was  in  the  end  realised  under  the  authority 
of  a  king  reigning  at  Jerusalem. 

But  decay  followed  closely  upon  this  splendour.  The 
Machabees,  who  had  begun  as  leaders  of  bands,  ended  as 
oriental  tyrants.  No  Asiatic  dynasty  escapes  this  fatal 
development.  Crime  multiplied  in  the  palace ;  the 
political  history  of  Judaea  was  directed  in  the  harem  ;  little 
by  little  all  the  old  miseries  fell  again  on  the  Jewish  people. 

There  were  unfortunate  wars,  and  the  soil  of  Judaea 


THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES  243 

was  once  more  darkened  by  invasions,  with  their  devas- 
tation and  carnage.  Civil  wars  broke  out  among  the 
descendants  of  the  Machabees,  each  summoning  to  his 
aid  the  neighbouring  Egyptians,  Syrians,  Arabs,  and, 
finally,  Romans.  At  Jerusalem,  meantime,  the  dissen- 
sions became  more  and  more  violent ;  disturbances  spread 
disorder  through  the  city,  and  ended  in  pools  of  blood. 
After  the  disturbances  came  revolts ;  and  the  savage 
vengeance  of  the  tyrant  of  Jerusalem  had  the  prisoners 
slowly  tortured,  round  the  table  at  which  he  indulged 
his  orgies,  while  their  wives  and  children  were  slain  before 
their  dying  eyes. 

It  is  all  over  with  the  momentary  splendour.  Hence- 
forth there  opens  for  the  Jews  an  era  of  ferocious  oppres- 
sion, calamity,  and  wrath,  that  will  last  two  centuries. 
Jewish  history  is  a  history  of  ever-increasing  misery.  It 
began  with  the  rule,  not  yet  a  hard  rule,  of  the  Persian 
satraps  ;  then  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Seleucids  wrest  the 
country  from  each  other ;  when  peace  is  restored,  their 
rule  is  as  yet  tolerable,  but  dissension  rends  Judasa  and 
brings  in  Antiochus  Epiphanes  and  the  civil  war  ;  the 
Machabees,  national  sovereigns,  now  exercise  over  the 
Jews  a  tyranny  worse  than  that  of  its  former  foreign 
masters ;  soon  it  will  be  the  turn  of  Herod,  then  of  the 

Romans What  a  terrible  destiny  for  a  people   that 

declares  itself  born  to  rule  the  world  ! 

From  the  depths  of  the  Jewish  soul  rise  new  apoca- 
lypses, in  which  are  expressed  the  wild  hopes  of  a  people 
whom  no  reverse  can  cast  into  despair.  Little  known 
works,  copying  each  other,  they  have  an  interest  on 
account  of  the  state  of  mind  that  they  indicate. 

The  book  of  Daniel  seems  to  have  been  followed  first 
by  a  book  of  Henoch.  Henoch  is  one  of  the  oldest 
patriarchs  of  the  Bible,  one  of  the  ancestors  of  Noah. 
Like  Daniel,  he  traces  the  destinies  of  the  Jewish  people 
in  the  framework  of  a  universal  history.  He  begins  with 
the  fall  of  the  angels.    He  ends  by  announcing  the  general 


244  THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES 

attack  of  the  nations  upon  Israel,  the  divine  intervention, 
the  victory  of  the  saints,  the  resurrection  of  the  martyrs, 
and  the  judgment  of  Jahveh. 

Another  apocalypse  is  written  by  an  Alexandrian  Jew. 
This  time  the  Jewish  writer,  being  an  Alexandrian,  makes 
use,  not  of  an  ancient  prophet,  but  of  the  pagan  sibyl,  to 
foretell  the  destinies  of  the  Jewish  people.  But  the  frame 
constructed  by  Daniel  remains  ;  universal  history  is  related 
from  the  Judaic  point  of  view.  The  picture  opens  with 
the  tower  of  Babel ;  it  closes  with  the  final  attack  upon 
Israel  of  all  the  nations  of  the  world  in  coalition,  with 
the  final  eschatology  and  the  triumph  of  Israel. 

We  have  reached  the  first  century.  The  series  of 
apocalypses  continues  among  the  lower  orders  of  the 
Jewish  people. 

A  new  book  of  Henoch  appears,  with  the  same 
promises   and   the    same   eschatology. 

Then  come  the  eighteen  psalms  of  Solomon.  The 
misfortunes  of  the  hour  are  a  punishment  of  the  sins  of 
Israel,  but  a  glorious  future  is  at  hand.  Jahveh  is  about 
to  raise  up  a  son  of  David  who  will  fulfil  the  promises. 

The  Ascension  of  Moses,  which  is  possibly  later,  is  a 
furious  invective  against  the  enemies  of  Israel.  The 
historical  framework  constructed  by  Daniel  is  faithfully 
reproduced ;  the  destinies  of  the  world  are  revealed  to 
Moses  down  to  the  day  of  the  expected  catastrophe. 

Meantime  the  Machabees  had  sunk  to  the  lowest  depth 
of  crime  and  baseness ;  the  hour  of  Rome  was  about  to 
strike.  For  a  century  Rome  had  intervened,  with 
increasing  assiduity,  but  always  from  a  distance,  in  the 
affairs  of  Judasa.  At  last  its  legions  appeared  on  the 
frontiers  of  Palestine.  The  eagles  that  had  conquered 
the  world  advanced,  slow  and  terrible,  with  the  calm 
strength  of  an  invincible  tide. 

In  the  year  63  before  our  era  Pompey  took  Jerusalem. 
Without  reducing  Judaea  to  the  condition  of  a  Roman 
province,  he  put  it  under  the  protectorate  of  Rome. 


THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES  245 

Rome  is,  at  this  period,  mistress  of  the  world.  Her 
rule  extends  even  over  the  east ;  the  few  kingdoms  that 
seem  to  be  independent,  such  as  Egypt,  are  morally 
conquered.  Already  all  obey ;  to-morrow  all  will  be 
Roman  provinces.  And  all  submit  to  the  accomplished 
fact.  The  Africans  are  subject ;  the  Gauls  are  about  to 
be ;  the  Greeks  have  bowed  their  heads ;  Asia  Minor  and 
Syria  worship  their  masters  ;  Egypt  aspires  to  slavery. 
Only  the  lowest  of  peoples  does  not  yield. 

The  distinctive  character  of  the  Jewish  soul  was  never 
to  accept  defeat ;  from  that  it  drew  its  power.  The 
Hellenist  invasion  had  inflamed,  instead  of  stifling,  the 
ardour  of  the  Jewish  soul.  The  power  of  Rome  in  turn 
will  not  stifle  it.  While  the  degenerate  sacerdotal 
aristocracy  bears  a  yoke  which  allows  it  to  cling  to  its 
enjoyments,  the  Jewish  soul  lives  in  the  party  of  the 
rigourists  and  puritans,  the  guardians  of  the  ancient 
traditions.  The  Jew  cannot  abandon  his  hopes,  the 
inheritance  of  the  world  which  he  believes  to  be  promised 
to  him. 

This  people,  which  will  not  suffer  itself  to  be  reduced, 
astonishes  us  ;  it  astonishes  us  no  less  when  it  puts  its 
trust  in  the  help  of  Providence.  The  Jewish  soul  dreams 
that  it  has  its  revenge ;  but  now  the  minister  of  justice 
must  descend  from  heaven  in  the  midst  of  thunder  and 
lightning. 

There  is  now  a  new  character  in  the  apocalypses  that 
rise,  one  after  another,  among  the  fanatical  people.  This 
character  is,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  messianism. 
We  have  followed  the  study  of  Judaism  down  to  the  verge 
of  the  Christian  era  without  pronouncing  the  words 
messiah  and  messianism.  Of  the  many  meanings  that 
have  been  given  to  these  two  words  we  have  preferred  to 
retain  one  only,  and  that  the  most  recent.  It  is  now  time 
to  define  it. 

The  Biblical  books  relate  that,  from  the  earliest  days  of 
royalty  in  Israel,  the  kings  had  been  consecrated  in  the 


246  THE  FIRST  APOCALYPSES 

name  of  Jahvoh  by  an  anointing  with  oil.  Saul,  the  first 
king,  had  been  anointed  by  Samuel.  After  the  kings,  and, 
like  them,  the  high-priests,  who  were  now  heads  of  the 
State  of  Jerusalem,  were  Anointed  ones.  From  that  time 
the  Anointed  was  the  supreme  head,  king  or  high-priest, 
appointed  by  Jahveh  to  rule.  Now  in  Hebrew  to  anoint 
is  mashoah  ;  an  Anointed  is  Mashiah,  or  Messiah  ;  a 
Messiah  is  an  Anointed.  The  Greeks  translated  Mashiah 
by  the  word  "  xpicrroQ  ";  the  Latins  said  "  Christus."  The 
three  words  "Messiah,"  "Christ,"  and  "Anointed"  are 
therefore  translations  of  each  other,  and  all  originally 
mean  one  who  has  received  consecration  by  oil.  It  is 
already  clear  that  the  two  words  "  Messianism "  and 
"  Christianism  "  are  originally  synonymous,  like  the  two 
words  "Messiah"  and  "Christ";  one  is  the  Hebrew 
form,  the  other  the  Greek.  The  Vulgate  and  Lemaistre 
de  Saci  very  properly  call  Saul,  David,  Solomon,  and 
Zarobabel  "  Christs." 

The  Christ,  Messiah,  or  Anointed,  promised  by  the 
Mosaic  books  to  rule  the  people  of  Israel  when  it  is  finally 
established,  must  be  a  king  descending  from  David.  He 
who  is  then  promised  by  the  prophets  to  reign,  in  peace 
and  glory,  over  the  vanquished  world  is  again  a  Davidic 
king ;  but,  although  he  is  the  head  who  will  rule  in  the 
name  of  Jahveh,  he  is  not  the  one  who  will  conquer  the 
world.  He  is  merely  the  future  king  of  the  glorious  era ; 
he  will  enjoy  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  ;  he  will  not 
himself  fulfil  them. 

Who,  then,  will  fulfil  the  promises  of  Jahveh  ?  At  the 
time  of  the  Mosaic  books  and  the  early  prophets  it  was 
believed  that  the  Jewish  people,  with  the  aid  of  its  god, 
but  advancing  itself  to  the  combat,  could,  under  the 
auspices  of  its  god  seconding  its  own  valour,  conquer  its 
enemies,  secure  its  kingdom,  and  consolidate  it  amid  the 
nations.     That  was  the  heroic  epoch  of  Judaism. 

In  the  following  epoch  the  Jewish  people  despairs  of 
conquering  by  itself,  even  with  the  aid  of  its  god.     The 


THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES  247 

god  must  intervene  personally ;  without  its  god,  the 
Jewish  people  can  do  nothing.  That  is  the  doctrine  of 
the  prophets.  "I  am  Jahveh,  thy  saviour,"  says  Isaiah.^ 
The  saviour  who  will  crush  the  goim  and  give  Israel  the 
empire  of  the  world  is,  in  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  Michah 
and  Zechariah,  always  Jahveh.  It  is  the  same  in  the 
psalms ;  Jahveh,  in  the  psalms,  is  alone  able  to  bring  about 
the  conquest  of  the  world.  The  king  who  is  a  son  of 
David  will  receive  from  his  hands  the  world  purged  of  his 
enemies,  on  its  knees  before  his  glory. 

Daniel  marks  a  third  stage.  An  angel  will  do  the 
work ;  an  angel  will  destroy  the  empire  of  the  pagans, 
and  establish  indestructibly  the  rule  of  the  Jews. 

In  the  successors  of  Daniel  the  Anointed  comes  into 
full  view,  but  he  is  identified  with  the  angel  of  Jahveh. 
That  is  the  fourth  and  last  stage  of  this  long  evolution. 
Though  they  had  all  received   the  sacred  unction,  the 
Machabees  had,  by  their  tyranny,  their  alliance  with  the 
aristocracy,  their  crimes,  and  their  debasement,  made  the 
people  refuse  to  regard  them  as  Anointed.     Herod  also 
would  be  consecrated  with  the  holy  oil ;  but  the  hatred  of 
the  people  could  not  bring  itself  to  grant  him  the  old  and 
profoundly  national  title  of  Messiah.     The  earlier  meaning 
of  the  word  was  gradually  lost,  and  the  title,  which  they 
refused  to  grant  to  sovereigns  who  were  more  and  more 
detested,  was   fastened   upon  the  expected  angel.     The 
Messiah  ceased  to  be  a  man ;  he  became  a  supernatural 
being.     In  the  apocalypses  which  followed  that  of  Daniel 
the  Messiah  is  the  angel  who  will  deliver  Israel,  reduce  or 
exterminate  the  pagan  world,  found  the  Jewish  empire, 
and  fulfil  the  ancient  promises ;  and  they  began  to  expect 
his   coming   amid   clouds   and    thunder   in   the   opened 
heavens.     Messianism  had  reached  its  definitive  formula. 
We  must  understand  that  it  was  the  forlorn  hope,  the 
last  card,  of  the  Jewish  people,  as  they  clung  to  the  most 

*  Isaiah  Ix.  16. 


248  THE  FIEST  APOCALYPSES 

chimerical  folly  in  order  to  hope  once  more.  However 
much  we  may  admire  the  tenacity  of  a  people  in  refusing 
to  die,  and  desperately  creating  new  grounds  for  hope,  let 
us  realise  how  such  an  idea  condemns  all  personal  effort, 
and  represents  the  abdication  of  human  energy  at  the  feet 
of  the  supernatural. 

In  the  beginning  the  Jews  had,  like  all  great  peoples, 
asked  their  god  to  assist  them  in  triumphing  over  their 
enemies.  And  gradually,  as  their  oppression  became 
heavier,  their  ambition  less  practicable,  and  their  con- 
fidence in  themselves  more  feeble,  they  had  relied  the 
more  on  Jahveh.  They  had  ended  in  relying  on  them- 
selves, their  own  strength  and  energy,  no  longer;  they 
relied  wholly  on  Jahveh.  Then  this  self-abdication  had 
sunk  a  degree  lower.  The  Jews  no  longer  ventured  to 
think  that  they  would  be  permitted  to  co-operate  in  the 
work  of  Jahveh  otherwise  than  by  prayer ;  an  angel  must 

bring  them  the  victory  from  heaven This  angel  is  now 

the  Messiah,  promised  and  awaited  from  the  earliest  times, 
to  reign  over  the  universe. 

That  is  the  prodigy  of  the  Jewish  soul.  When  all  hope 
is  forbidden  it,  it  still  finds  ground  for  hope.  It  does  not 
abdicate ;  it  does  not  renounce  ;  it  persists  in  its  dream  of 
revenge,  even  when  the  foot  of  the  Roman  is  upon  it. 
But  its  indefatigable  imperialism  now  demands  that  an 
angel  shall  come  down  from  the  heights  of  heaven,  in  the 
midst  of  the  Kerubim,  in  a  flare  of  thunder  and  lightning. 


Chapter  III. 

THE  EOMAN  PERIOD 

§  1.  Hillel  and  Shammai. 

The  day  on  which  the  Romans  took  Jerusalem  and 
Palestine  (63  B.C.)  marks  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of 
Judaism.  The  genius  of  Greece  had  struggled  and 
failed ;  in  its  turn  the  power  of  Rome  is  about  to  match 
itself  against  the  old  Jewish  soul. 

The  Greek  genius  represented  the  finer  achievements 
of  intelligence,  art,  science,  and  philosophy ;  the  power 
of  Rome,  on  the  other  hand,  consisted  in  the  achieve- 
ments of  will,  of  the  military  spirit  and  the  spirit  of 
government.  Devoid  of  all  intellectual  qualities,  devoid 
of  the  least  military  instinct  or  political  sentiment,  the 
Jewish  soul  formulated  its  invincible  craving  for  life  and 
rule  in  so  rabid  a  fanaticism  that,  after  triumphing  over 
the  intelligence  of  Greece,  it  could  stand  erect  in  face  of 
the  power  of  Rome. 

The  wild  nationalism  of  the  Jews  had  opposed  itself 
in  a  mass  to  the  Hellenic  invasion.  Against  Rome  it  had 
two  methods  of  fighting.  One  was  open  war,  which  was 
condemned  in  advance  to  an  overpowering  check ;  the 
other  was  subterraneous  war,  the  only  warfare  that  could 
succeed. 

Two  names,  two  men,  living  about  the  last  year  of 
the  old  era,  seem  to  us  fitting  symbols  of  these  two 
methods :  one  taught  patience,  the  other  preached 
violence :  they  were  Hillel  and  Shammai.  The  man  of 
violence,  Shammai,  was  destined  to  win  at  Jerusalem, 
and  his  party  led  the  holy  city  to  its  doom ;  but  the 
Dispersion,  that  vast  field  of  exile  that  stretched  from 

249 


250  THE  EOMAN  PERIOD 

ghetto  to  ghetto  across  the  Roman  Empire,  hstened  to 
the  words  of  the  man  of  patience,  Hillel,  the  master  of 
St.  Paul. 

During  the  twenty-five  years  which  followed  the  taking 
of  Jerusalem  by  Pompey,  Judaea  was  spattered  with 
blood  by  the  efforts  of  the  last  descendants  of  the  Macha- 
bees  to  win  back  or  preserve  their  royalty.  The  family 
of  the  Herods  comes  on  the  scene.  As  Idumseans — in 
other  words,  Edomites — Antipater  and  his  son  Herod  the 
Great  came  of  a  race  despised  by  the  men  of  Jerusalem. 
They  became,  in  turn,  creatures  of  Pompey,  then  of 
Caesar  after  Pharsala,  of  Cassius  after  the  assassination 
of  Caesar,  of  Antony  after  Philippi,  and  of  Augustus  after 
Actium.  In  the  year  40  B.C.  Herod  obtained  of  the 
Senate  the  title  of  king  of  Judaea.  With  the  help  of  the 
legions  of  Syria  he  secured  his  kingdom,  and  for  more 
than  thirty  years  he  was  a  terrible  and  magnificent 
tyrant.  A  lover  of  splendour,  he  covered  Judaea  with 
monuments ;  and  he  rebuilt  at  great  expense  the  humble 
temple  that  Zarobabel  had  raised  to  the  national  god 
five  centuries  before,  and  made  it  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  world.  He  was  none  the  less  fanatically  hated  by 
the  Jews ;  but  he  was  able  to  repress  the  anger  that 
rumbled  about  him.  In  virtue  of  his  energy,  craft,  and 
crimes,  he  ruled  over  the  most  difficult  people  to  govern 
in  the  whole  Roman  Empire. 

The  story  is  familiar  of  the  frightful  agony  of  Herod, 
equally  tormented  by  suspicion  and  illness,  ordering 
massacres  and,  from  his  death-bed,  directing  the  murder 
of  one  of  his  sons.  Sedition  only  awaited  his  end  to 
break  out.  One  day  he  was  believed  to  have  died ;  at 
once  a  troop  of  fanatical  Jews  went  to  tear  down  the 
golden  eagle,  a  sacrilegious  emblem,  from  the  front  of  the 
temple.  The  old  king  awoke  to  send  the  rebels  to  the 
executioner.  But  immediately  after  his  death  an  era  of 
trouble  and  revolt  set  in,  and  was  destined  to  culminate 


HILLEL  AND  SHAMMAI  251 

in  the  great  insurrection  of  the  year  66  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  in  70. 

Augustus  soon  made  a  Roman  province  of  Judaea. 
From  that  time  it  is  governed  by  procurators,  whose  seat 
is  Caesarea  ;  their  names  are  Coponius,  Ambivius,  Bufus, 
Gratus,  and  Pontius  Pilate. 

The  historian  Flavius  Josephus  has  given  us  a  cele- 
brated picture  of  the  sects  that  then  distracted  Judaea ; 
in  it  we  can  discern  a  picture  of  the  various  classes 
which  formed  Jewish  society. 

At  the  top  were  still  the  Sadducees,  the  aristocracy  of 
Judaea,  priests  living  on  the  temple,  rich,  sceptical, 
powerful,  and  necessarily  hostile  to  the  old  Judaic  ideas. 
Cultivated  and  intelligent,  they  understood  that  it  was 
impossible  to  escape  the  authority  of  Eome.  To  preserve 
their  wealth,  they  demanded  submission  to  Bome,  just 
as  the  Hellenising  aristocrats  of  former  days  had  demanded 
submission  to  Antiochus.  Was  the  old  Judaic  dream  of 
revenge  still  vigilant  at  the  heart  of  these  professions? 
It  is  hardly  probable ;  no  trace  of  it  is  found,  at  all 
events.  Their  only  aim  was  to  live  on  good  terms  with 
Bome,  with  the  Idumaeans  who  were  in  the  favour  of 
Bome,  and  with  the  procurators,  and  to  continue  to  receive 
the  enormous  tithes  that  still  came  to  the  temple  every  year. 

At  a  lower  level,  the  Pharisees  represented  the  middle- 
class.  The  Pharisees  were  not  poor,  but  they  were  not 
rich.  We  have  explained  several  times  that  in  the  East,  '  \j^ 
where  the  material  wants  are  less  than  in  our  climates, 
an  intermediate  situation  is  possible,  in  which  the 
inheritance  of  some  humble  house,  or  some  far  from 
absorbing  occupation,  is  enough  to  give  one  leisure  to 
study  the  law,  to  discharge  the  many  practices  of  the 
cult,  and  to  indulge  in  religious  and  patriotic  meditations. 
The  Pharisees  were  the  holy  people  that  Jahveh  had 
consecrated  to  himself  since  the  Exodus,  and,  although 
they  were  not  really  priests,  it  was  to  them  that  the  Law 
had  said : — 


252  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

"  Ye  shall  be  a  kingdom  of  priests." ' 

Putting  themselves  in  the  place  of  a  degenerate  and 
detested  aristocracy,  the  Pharisees  were  really  at  the  head 
of  the  Jewish  people.  They  occupied,  morally,  the  place 
of  the  old  clerical  aristocracy  of  the  time  of  Esdras  and 
Deuteronomy.  They  had  inherited  its  ancient  virtues, 
its  patriotism,  its  uncompromising  nationalism.  But  they 
had  not  its  greatness  ;  being  continuers,  and  not  creators, 
they  made  a  superstition  of  observance.  The  tradition 
that  is  not  enlivened  by  a  slow  evolution  becomes  dry  ; 
the  legislation  that  has  originated  in  the  most  ardent 
craving  for  life  becomes  a  tyranny  the  moment  it  ceases 
to  move  ;  the  heirs  of  the  terrible  patriots  of  the  fourth 
century  are  quibbling  formalists.  But  they  still  have 
obstinacy,  the  old  Jewish  virtue  that  stands  for  all  qualities 
in  these  men. 

The  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  composed  the  official 
Jewish  world  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  of  the 
present  era.  Below  them  were  the  very  poor  and  very 
fanatical  mass  of  the  people.  Very  poor,  or  rather  owning 
nothing,  living  from  day  to  day,  ready  for  sordid  tasks 
when  hunger  spoke  too  loud,  averse  from  work  at  any 
other  time,  clever  only  in  following  their  old  messianic 
dream  through  the  idleness  of  long  torrid  days.  Very 
fanatical  also,  enfevered  by  the  promises  of  the  apoca- 
lypses, inebriated  with  secret  ambition  and  suppressed 
anger,  regarding  themselves  as  the  sole  heirs  of  Israel, 
they  spent  themselves  in  the  silent  rage  of  waiting  so 
long  for  their  day. 

The  popular  class  had  an  extreme  left.  Flavius 
Josephus,  the  histiographer  of  cultivated  Judaea  and 
courtier  of  the  Flavian  Emperors,  describes  in  the 
darkest  colours  the  lowest  class  of  Jewish  society.  It 
was,  he  says,  a  collection  of  brigands,  beggars,  thieves, 
adventurers,    assassins,    and    all   kinds   of    fomenters   of 

*  Exodus  xix.  6. 


HILLEL  AND  SHAMMAI  253 

disorder.  These  supposed  brigands  of  Josephus  called 
themselves  the  Zealots  or  Sicaries ;  pushing  fanaticism  to 
its  last  consequences,  they  made  it  their  mission,  it  seems, 
some  day  to  slay  every  Jev^^  who  transgressed  the  Law. 

Finally,  we  must  mention,  outside  of  this  passionate 
world,  the  Essenians  or  Essetes,  a  sort  of  devout  dreamers, 
illuminati,  living  in  prayer  and  asceticism. 

Such  was  in  the  first  century — with  its  extreme  right 
consisting  of  aristocratic  Sadducees,  who  remained  Jews 
externall}^  but  were  rightly  suspected  by  the  rigourists 
and  were  the  allies  of  the  Eoman  procurators  ;  with  its 
right  consisting  of  conservative  Pharisees  ;  with  its  left 
consisting  of  miserable  fanatics  ;  and  with  its  little  corner 
of  eccentric  Essenians,  and  its  extreme  left  composed  of 
uncompromising  zealots — the  Jewish  society  which  the 
doctrines  of  Hillel  and  Shammai  has  just  rent  into  two 
parties  and  two  irreconcilable  camps. 

Hillel  and  Shammai  were  Jerusalem  doctors  of  the 
Herodian  period,  whom  tradition  represents  as  devoted 
to  the  interpretation  of  the  Mosaic  law.  Benevolent, 
indulgent,  and  gentle,  Hillel  is  described  as  a  partisan  of 
the  liberal  interpretation  ;  Shammai,  a  partisan  of  the 
strict  interpretation,  is  a  sombre,  inflexible,  violent  man. 
They  are  depicted  for  us  in  an  anecdote.  A  pagan  said 
one  day  to  Shammai  that  he  would  embrace  Judaism  if 
he  would  teach  him  the  whole  of  the  Law  in  the  space  of 
time  that  he  could  stand  on  one  leg.  For  reply  Shammai 
took  up  a  stick.     To  the  same  inquiry  Hillel  replied : — 

"  Do  not  unto  others  that  that  thou  wouldst  they  should 
not  do  unto  thee.     That  is  the  whole  of  the  Law." 

The  Talmud  represents  them,  amid  the  strong  passions 
of  the  time,  as  exclusively  concerned  with  questions  of 
interpretation  and  casuistry.  But  the  Talmud  is  ignorant 
of  history,  and  its  silence  on  the  political  attitude  of  the 
two  great  doctors  proves  nothing.  Their  fame  rather 
leads  us  to  think  that  they  had  influence  on  the  events  of 
their  time.     What  man  could  have  isolated  himself  in  the 


254  THE  EOMAN  PEEIOD 

game  of  scholastic  controversies,  in  the  heart  of  Judaea,  at 
such  a  time  ?  We  have  no  documents  as  to  the  pohtical 
attitude  of  Hillel,  but  tradition  relates  that  Shammai 
inspired  the  zealots.  It  is  probable  that  Hillel  inspired 
the  opposite  party.  Were  not  the  Pharisees  who  after- 
wards opposed  the  revolt  against  Rome  disciples  of  Hillel? 

Moreover,  was  not  the  interpretation  of  the  Law  an 
interpretation  of  Judaism  '?  According  to  the  Talmud, 
there  was  question  of  interpreting  the  Mosaic  laws.  That 
may  be  so,  but  there  was  also  question  of  interpreting  the 
prophets,  the  psalms,  and  the  apocalypses — the  whole  of 
that  vast  series  of  books  which  had  already,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  present  era,  become  sacred  books, 
containing  the  expression  of  the  development  of  the 
Jewish  soul.  Did  not  the  interpretation  of  the  Judaic 
tradition  necessarily  involve  the  framing  of  a  political 
programme  ? 

What  was,  then,  the  tradition  of  Judaism  in  the  first 
century  ? 

The  glowing  nationalism  of  the  founders  of  the  Jewish 
State,  in  the  time  of  Esdras,  had  expressed  in  terms  of 
the  cult  of  the  national  god  Jahveh  the  fierce  patriotism 
which  was  to  them  the  condition  of  existence ;  and  this 
primitive  conception  had  traced  the  path  for  Judaism. 
The  ancient  moshlim  who  had,  in  the  fourth  century, 
gradually  composed  the  books  of  Moses,  persuaded  them- 
selves, by  identifying  the  god  Jahveh  with  the  Jewish 
fatherland,  by  repeating  that  Israel  (we  know  why  they 
said  Israel)  was  the  people  of  Jahveh,  just  as  Jahveh  was 
the  god  of  Israel,  that  a  covenant  had  been  concluded 
between  Jahveh  and  the  Jews ;  that  Jahveh  had  promised 
the  Jews  the  free  and  peaceful  enjoyment  of  their  land  if 
they  observed  his  law. 

In  spite  of  the  alternate  mastery  of  Judaea  by  the 
Ptolemies  and  Seleucids,  the  prophets  had  improved  upon 
the  covenant.  By  a  stroke  of  genius,  the  two  Isaiahs  had, 
at  the  time  when  the  greatest  misery  prevailed  and  the 


•    HILLEL  AND  SHAMMAI  255 

divine  promise  seemed  to  fail,  enlarged  it  so  far  as  to 
announce  that  Jahveh  promised,  not  merely  the  peaceful 
and  glorious  enjoyment  of  Palestine,  but  the  dominion  of 
the  world. 

The  dark  soul  of  the  chanters  of  the  psalms  had  found 
comfort  in  the  promise  ;  and,  when  fresh  evidence  was 
given  of  the  vanity  of  such  ambition,  the  apocalypses  and 
the  book  of  Daniel  had  appeared.  In  the  apocalypses 
there  are  no  longer  conditions  attached  to  the  promise ; 
the  final  event — the  submission  of  the  world,  the  posses- 
sion of  the  earth,  the  glorification  of  Jerusalem — is 
announced  absolutely,  at  a  fixed  date,  in  all  its  details.  The 
Jew  has  now  merely  to  await  his  time  in  a  devout  fulfil- 
ment of  the  works  of  the  Law,  and  perseverance  in  his 
unconquerable  faith.  The  day  when  the  heavens  will 
open  and  the  Messiah  appear,  amid  the  parting  clouds,  in 
the  roar  of  the  thunder  and  the  Keroubim,  the  work  will  be 
perfected,  and  the  Jews  will  receive  their  inheritance  from 
his  hands,  without  striking  a  blow,  while  their  enemies 
are  exterminated  or  reduced. 

To  this  pitch  had  the  imperialism  of  the  Jewish  people 
attained  when  the  Romans  took  Palestine. 

Once  more  the  fulfilment  of  their  hope  was  postponed : 
once  more  the  reality  pitilessly  belied  their  ambition. 

Let  us  add  that  the  Romans  were  much  harder  masters 
than  the  Syrians  or  the  Egyptians  had  been.  Moreover, 
while  the  Egyptians  and  the  Syrians  had  left  the  Jews  to 
govern  themselves  under  their  suzerainty,  Rome  imposed 
detested  rulers,  either  as  kings  or  procurators.  For  the 
Romans,  though  so  tolerant  toward  the  peoples  whom 
they  governed,  had  at  last  become  weary  of  Jewish 
fanaticism ;  unruly  subjects  needed  tyrannical  govern- 
ment. 

The  hopes  of  the  Jews  lay  dark  in  an  abyss  of  calamities 
that  they  had  never  known  before. 

Then  were  formed  the  two  great  parties  of  the  last 
epoch  of  the  Jewish  people.     There  was  the  party  of  the 


256  THE  EOMAN  PERIOD 

insurgent,  and  the  party  of  those  who  did  not  despair. 
There  were,  with  Hillel  and  Shammai,  two  interpretations 
of  the  Judaic  law. 

Hillel  interpreted  it :  — 

"  Follow  the  example  of  our  fathers.  Be  patient.  Trust 
the  divine  promises.  Confide  in  god.  Wait.  Expect 
everything  from  him.  Expect  nothing  of  yourselves. 
Observe  the  commandments.     Believe  and  hope." 

Shammai  interpreted  it  : — 

"  Resist  the  oppressor.  Obey  god  only.  Refuse  sub- 
mission to  the  impious." 

Shammai  was  the  leader  of  those  who  became  at  last 
tired  of  suffering,  waiting,  and  bowing  the  head.  But  he 
was  breaking  the  Judaic  tradition  ;  it  was  Hillel  who  was 
faithful  to  it.  When  they  rebelled  against  the  Romans, 
the  Jews  rebelled  at  the  same  time  against  their  past, 
their  books,  and  their  god.  They  ceased  to  be  "  the 
pious  "  ;  and  they  became  heroes.  Nevertheless,  while 
it  drove  them  to  revolt,  their  despair  was  still  impreg- 
nated with  Judaism  ;  beliefs  that  are  four  centuries  old 
cannot  entirely  be  abandoned.  Though  in  rebellion,  the 
Jews  continued  to  await  the  Messiah  who  would  give 
them  the  victory  ;  but,  from  the  time  when  they  were  no 
longer  content  to  await  him  in  penance  and  prayer,  the 
promise  of  great  help  and  the  hope  of  a  magnificent 
victory  gave  them  added  strength  to  sustain  them  in  the 
struggle. 

The  party  of  revolt  had  been  secretly  forming  during 
the  long  reign  of  Herod.  When  it  came  to  light,  in  the 
time  of  the  procurators,  it  embraced  a  considerable  part 
of  the  Pharisees,  the  violent  of  the  Shammai  type,  those 
who  are  carried  out  of  their  way  by  anger ;  but  it  was 
chiefly  composed  of  men  of  the  people,  and  absorbed  the 
whole  of  the  extreme  left  of  the  zealots. 

The  party  of  submission  had  its  adherents  to  the  end. 
It  embraced  the  whole  of  the  Sadducees.  These  wealthy, 
pleasure-loving   aristocrats   now   expected    little   of    the 


EENASCENCE  OF  PROPHETISM  257 

promises  of  Jahveh ;  the  Koman  domination  secured 
them  a  peaceful  and  pleasant  life.  The  greater  part  of 
the  Pharisees  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  party.  As  dis- 
ciples of  Hillel,  they  were  men  of  tradition.  It  is  certain 
that  a  fraction  of  the  lower  people  also  accepted  sub- 
mission, though  they  gradually  tired  of  it,  and  passed  to 
the  opposite  party. 

Hillel  and  Shammai  were  not  to  be  the  leaders  of  the 
parties  they  had  inspired.  They  were  both  dead  when 
the  period  of  trouble,  violence,  and  folly,  that  led  to  the 
ruin  of  Jerusalem,  began.  The  scene  is  now  about  to  be 
occupied  by  a  series  of  agitators,  some  arising  in  the 
school  of  Hillel,  others  in  that  of  Shammai.  Chief  among 
them  were,  on  the  one  side,  John  the  Baptist  and  similar 
men,  and,  on  the  other  side,  Judas  the  Gaulonite,  his 
sons,  and  the  insurgents  of  the  year  66. 


§  2.  Benascence  of  Prophetism, 

Let  us  recall  what  the  prophets  had  been  in  the  course 
of  the  preceding  centuries.  In  ancient  Israel,  as  in  the 
time  of  Esdras  and  in  every  period  in  the  history  of 
oriental  peoples,  we  found  certain  wizards,  something  like 
dancing  and  howling  dervishes,  who  foretold  the  future, 
healed  beasts  and  men,  and  wandered,  feared  and  vener- 
ated, about  the  country  and  the  towns  of  Palestine.  It 
was  believed  that  the  spirit  of  Jahveh  breathed  in  these 
poor  fools ;  and  they  were  called — as  simple  peoples 
always  call  such  men — men  of  god.  By  a  literary  device 
that  argues  the  most  fertile  power  of  invention,  the  writers 
of  the  end  of  the  fourth  and  of  the  third  centuries  had 
attributed  their  discourses  and  dogmatic  odes  to  ancient 
and  legendary  men  of  god,  such  as  Hosea,  Amos,  Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel,  and  Isaiah ;  and,  while  these  wild  bone-setters, 
with  the  impress  of  sacred  madness,  were  still,  in  the 
third  century,  seen  wandering  about  the  towns  and  fields, 

s 


258  THE  ROMAN  PERIOD 

people  repeated  the  hymns,  the  vociferations,  the  poems, 
and  the  "prophecies,"  which  Jahveh  was  supposed  to 
have  dictated  to  the  ancestors  of  these  wretched  beings. 

It  was  still  the  same  in  the  second  century.  The 
author  of  the  book  of  Daniel  had,  like  the  authors  of 
the  books  of  Jeremiah  and  Isaiah,  idealised  the  sombre 
figure  of  the  popular  diviner  into  that  of  the  prophet 
Daniel.  After  Daniel  a  few  authors  of  apocalypses  had 
maintained  the  tradition.  The  inspiration  was  failing, 
however.  Moreover,  a  canon  of  the  sacred  books  had 
been  made,  and  it  was  more  difficult  to  secure  the  accept- 
ance of  new  prophets.  Men  of  god  still  abounded  in 
Judaea  and  in  the  whole  of  the  East.  There  were  still 
sorcerers,  but  there  were  no  longer  prophets,  in  Israel. 

We  reach  the  beginning  of  the  first  century  of  our  era. 
The  ancient  prophetic  books  are  the  beverage  that  intoxi- 
cates the  impatience  of  the  Jewish  people.  At  that  time 
no  one,  either  in  Judaea  or  the  Jewish  colonies,  doubts 
that  Jeremiah,  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Daniel  had  really 
existed,  and  that  they  had,  at  the  time  of  the  ancient 
kingdoms  and  the  Deportation,  written  the  pages  and 
done  the  deeds  which  their  books  ascribed  to  them ;  it 
is  regretted  that  they  have  had  no  successors,  and  that 
the  voice  of  prophetism  has  been  so  long  silent.  This 
glowing  cult  of  the  ancient  prophetic  books  provoked, 
under  the  pressure  of  events,  real  rivals  of  the  fictitious 
prophets.  Was  not  the  ambition  to  take  up  afresh  the 
great  work  of  the  ancient  tribunes  bound  to  enter  some 
of  these  fanatical  minds?  It  is  natural  to  think  that 
more  than  one  of  these  Jews,  distracted  with  misery  and 
ambition,  dreamed,  in  their  ecstasies  and  furies,  of  sub- 
mitting themselvfs  in  turn,  like  a  Jeremiah,  to  the 
inspiration  of  Jahveh.  But  in  the  first  century  the 
impatience,  anger,  and  despair  were  too  great  to  express 
themselves  in  books  alone.  Something  more  than  words 
was  wanted — the  active  work  of  an  Elijah  and  a 
Jeremiah.     From  the  midst  of  these  men  of  god  who 


EENASCENCE  OF  PEOPHETISM  259 

still  wandered  miserably  about  Palestine,  pale  vagabonds, 
diviners,  and  healers,  bearing  the  sacred  mark  of  Jahveh, 
madness,  on  their  brows,  there  were  bound  to  come  some 
who  would  rise  to  the  effective  position  of  prophets. 

Thus  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  century,  for  the  first 
time  in  history,  the  character  that  had  been  created  by 
the  fiction  of  fourth  and  third-century  writers  became  at 
length  a  reality.  There  were  among  the  lowly  bone- 
setters  and  fortune-tellers  of  Palestine  men  who  spoke, 
preached,  and  acted  in  the  name  of  Jahveh.  What 
literary  inventiveness  had  made  of  an  Elijah  or  a 
Jeremiah,  a  John  the  Baptist  was  in  reality.  The  part 
which  had  been  imagined  for  an  Elisha  or  an  Isaiah  was 
taken  up  in  fact  by  a  Jesus  the  Nazarene.  There  were 
at  length  prophets  in  Israel  in  some  other  than  a  literary 
sense. 

When  we  wish  to  conceive  the  life  of  a  John  the 
Baptist,  a  Jesus  the  Nazarene,  or  a  Theudas,  we  must 
picture  to  ourselves  wonder-workers,  healers  of  men  and 
beasts,  wandering  from  town  to  town,  living  by  begging 
or  rascality,  surrounded  by  a  troop  of  followers,  recruited 
from  the  lower  classes  of  society,  and  practising  divina- 
tion as  well  as  healing.  Their  minds  exalted,  and 
believing  themselves  to  be  in  close  relation  with  their 
god,  they  call  themselves  his  spokesmen  ;  that  is  to  say, 
they  give  themselves  the  title  of  prophets  on  the  same 
ground  that  they  grant  it  to  the  great  classic  prophets — 
Elijah  and  Elisha,  Jeremiah,  Ezekiel,  and  Isaiah — their 
models. 

As  Judaism  is  now  triumphant  in  the  whole  of 
Palestine  (except  in  dissident  regions  like  Samaria,  which 
had  just  recovered  a  semi-independence),  we  shall  not  be 
surprised  to  find  other  men  than  those  of  Jerusalem 
among  the  new  prophets.  We  do  not  know  the  country 
of  John  the  Baptist ;  Theudas  probably  belonged  to 
Jerusalem ;  Jesus  is  said  to  have  been  a  Galilaean. 
There  has  been  an  interminable  discussion  as  to  whether 


260  THE  KOMAN  PERIOD 

Jesus  the  Nazarene  was  a  Jew.  The  point  is  without 
interest ;  or,  rather,  it  is  very  simple.  All  these  men, 
John  the  Baptist,  Jesus  the  Nazarene,  Theudas,  and 
those  whose  names  are  not  preserved  in  history,  were  so 
profoundly  Judaisers  that  we  must  regard  them  as  Jews. 

The  racial  question  is  insoluble.  It  is  beyond  doubt 
that  there  had  been  a  great  mixture  of  populations  in 
Galilee ;  but  had  there  not  been  just  as  great  a  mingling 
in  Judaea  itself '?  Race  is  a  fugitive,  intangible  thing ; 
tradition  alone  counts.  For  three  centuries,  perhaps, 
and  certainly  since  the  early  Machabees — that  is  to  say, 
for  a  century  and  a  half — Galilee  had  been  Judaised. 
The  Galilaeans  of  the  first  century  practised  Judaism, 
and  lived  the  Jewish  life ;  they  shared  the  Jewish  soul 
unreservedly ;  they  were  Jews.' 

Coming  from  the  lower  ranks  of  society,  the  new 
prophets  remained,  like  their  models,  uncompromising 
demagogues.  Like  them,  they  are  ferociously  orthodox ; 
like  them,  they  are  feverish  with  hatred  of  the  goim ; 
like  them,  they  are  hostile  to  the  upper  clergy ;  like 
them,  they  are  pitiless  enemies  of  wealth  and  power. 

What  do  they  take  to  be  their  mission?  The  same, 
having  regard  to  new  conditions  and  the  more  recent 
apocalyptic  ideas,  that  the  classical  prophets  had  assumed 
in  their  day ;  they  are  going  to  proclaim  the  promises 
and  threats  of  Jahveh,  and  announce  the  speedy  liberation 
of  Israel  and  the  imminent  coming  of  the  judgment  of 
Jahveh.  In  a  word,  they  are  precursors  of  the  Messiah, 
The  expected  Messiah  was  to  be  an  angel,  not  a  man. 
It  is  inconceivable  that  any  Jew  could  at  that  time  call 
himself,  or  be  called,  Messiah. 

Of  the  two  camps  of  Hillel  and  Shammai,  which 
divide  Judsea,  one  ready  to  fly  to  arms,  the  other 
advising  patience,  one  fomenting  rebellion,  the  other 
promising  divine  intervention,  the  prophet-agitators  are 

^  See  Appendix  VII. 


JEWISH  AGITATORS  FROM  THE  YEAR  1  TO  66    261 

disciples  of  Hillel.  Their  work  is  not  to  preach  the  holy 
war,  but  to  announce  the  speedy  coming  of  the  liberator. 
Prudent  in  regard  to  the  Romans,  they  avoid  compro- 
mising words.  But  the  course  of  things  drags  them  out 
of  their  way.  You  cannot  with  impunity  preach  a  great 
hope  of  vengeance  among  an  over-excited  people.  Their 
hearts  are  inevitably  lifted  up ;  trouble  begins — not 
revolt,  but  heated  movements,  sometimes  half-seditious. 
That  is  enough,  however.  The  Eoman  authority  is 
implacable.  Rome  suffers  everything,  except  disorder  ; 
if  there  are  ideas  of  revolt,  it  will  make  a  terrible  example. 
It  is  not  anger,  but  policy.  At  the  first  outbreak  the 
procurator  pronounces  sentence  of  death. 

At  other  times  the  miserable  agitators  themselves  lose 
their  heads,  and  resort  to  violence.  From  the  precepts 
of  Hillel  they  pass  some  day  to  the  violent  party.  From 
that  time  they  are  confused  with  insurgents  such  as 
Judas  the  Gaulonite  ;  and  the  Roman  authority,  which 
has  not  spared  the  mere  fomenters  of  trouble,  will 
certainly  not  spare  the  seditious.  None  of  these  new 
prophets  comes  to  an  end  save  by  the  sword  or  the  cross. 

Let  us  say  a  few  words  on  the  chief  among  them. 


§  3.  Jewish  Agitators  from  the  Year  1  to  the 
Year  66. 

John  the  Baptist. —  Our  authorities  are  Flavins 
Josephus'  and  the  later  evangelical  legends. 

According  to  Josephus,  John,  surnamed  the  Baptist,  a 
man  of  great  piety,  exhorted  the  Jews  to  refrain  from 
sin  and  receive  baptism.  Josephus,  who  was  resolved  not 
to  speak  of  messianism,  says  no  more  about  him.  The 
later  legends  leave  no  doubt  that  John  announced  the 
speedy  coming  of  the  kingdom  of  Jahveh.  Possibly  he 
was  an  Essenian.    He  had,  Josephus  says,  many  followers. 

^  Jewish  Antig^idlics,  xviii.  7. 


262  THE  EOMAN  PEEIOD 

The  Herodian  authority,  which  held  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  Jordan,  and  rested  on  the  Roman  authority,  feared 
some  seditious  movement.  It  had  John  imprisoned  at 
Machera,  and  decapitated. 

Jesus  the  Nazarene. — Our  authorities  are  the 
Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  the  gospel  legends,  and  a  few  lines 
in  pagan  writers  of  the  second  century. 

The  existence  of  Jesus  seems  to  be  doubtful.  The 
Jewish  historian  Flavins  Josephus,  who  wrote  fifty  years 
after  the  assigned  date  of  his  death,  says  nothing  about 
him  ;  or,  rather,  his  work  only  mentions  him  in  a  passage 
which  is  unanimously  recognised  as  an  interpolation.' 
Another  Jewish  historian  of  the  same  period,  Justus  of 
Tiberias,  knows  nothing  of  him.  The  famous  Alexandrian 
Jew,  Philo,  who  was  born  twenty  years  before  Jesus,  and 
died  twenty  years  after  him,  and  who  was  the  most 
enlightened  man  of  his  age  in  the  East,  knows  nothing  of 
him.  The  Talmud  has  not  a  single  authentic  detail  about 
him.  No  Latin  or  Greek  historian  of  the  first  century 
had  heard  of  him  ;  and  there  is  not  a  single  contemporary 
official  text  that  indicates  his  existence.  As  to  the 
gospels,  they  are  dogmatic,  not  historical,  works ;  more- 
over, the  earliest  of  them  belong  to  the  end  of  the  first 
century. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  silence  of  Josephus  may  be  due 
to  the  suppression,  by  Christian  hands,  of  lines  analogous 
to  those  he  devotes  to  the  other  agitators ;  they  would  be 
regarded  as  blasphemous,  and  replaced  by  the  interpolated 
passage.  Again,  it  is  difficult  to  admit  that  the  gospel 
legends,  however  dogmatic  and  however  late  they  may  be, 
had  not  an  historical  basis.  Finally,  that  the  Latin  and 
Greek  texts  know  nothing  of  Jesus  is  not,  perhaps, 
unintelligible,  if  his  career  was  as  humble  as  that  of  the 
obscure  prophets  who  then  abounded  in  Palestine. 

*  Jewish  Antiquities,  xviii.  4. 


JEWISH  AGITATOKS  FKOM  THE  YEAE  1  TO  66     263 

If,  however,  we  choose  to  admit  the  real  existence  of 
an  agitator  of  the  name  of  Jesus,  we  have  to  be  content 
with  the  most  meagre  biographical  details.  For  instance, 
that  Jesus  was  born  in  Galilee ;  that  he  worked  as  a 
prophet  there  in  the  same  conditions  as  the  other  Jewish 
agitators  of  the  time  ;  that  he  at  last  allowed  himself  to 
be  led  into  the  misadventure  (entrance  into  Jerusalem 
and  invasion  of  the  temple)  which  terminated  in  his 
arrest ;  and  that  he  was,  on  that  account,  condemned  to 
the  cross  by  the  Boman  authority  (not  the  Jewish 
authority)  under  the  procuratorship  of  Pontius  Pilate. 

Theudas. — Consult  Josephus.^ 

Theudas,  in  the  year  47,  when  Cuspius  Fadus  was 
procurator  of  Judaea,  persuaded  a  great  crowd  to  follow 
him  as  far  as  the  Jordan,  in  the  expectation  that  the 
kingdom  of  Jahveh  was  at  hand. 

Fadus  sent  out  a  troop  of  cavalry.  Theudas  was  taken 
and  beheaded,  and  his  head  was  brought  to  Jerusalem. 

Some  Other  Agitators. — It  is  beyond  question  that 
there  were  many  other  agitators.  John  the  Baptist, 
Jesus  the  Nazarene,  and  Theudas — the  only  names  that 
have  reached  us — may  be  taken  as  prototypes  of  the 
others. 

Josephus  speaks  of  numbers  of  "enchanters"  who, 
deceiving  the  people  under  the  pretext  of  religion,  led 
them  into  solitary  places,  promising  them  that  god  would 
show  them  by  miracles  that  he  wished  to  deliver  them 
from  slavery.  The  procurator  Felix,  regarding  these 
meetings  as  a  beginning  of  revolt,  sent  out  soldiers,  who 
slew  a  great  number  of  them.^ 

A  prophet  from  Egypt  attracts  a  number  of  Jews  to 
the  Mountain  of  Olives,  assuring  them  that  the  walls  of 
Jerusalem  will  fall  at  the  sound  of  his  voice.    Felix  killed 

'  Jeioish  Antiqtdties,  xx.  2. 

^  Jewish  War,  ii.  23,  and  Jewish  Antiquities,  xx.  6. 


264  THE  EOMAN  PERIOD 

four  hundred  of  them,  and  took  two  hundred  prisoners ; 
but  the  Egyptian  escaped/ 

An  "impostor,"  whose  profession  was  thaumaturgy, 
leads  out  a  number  of  people  to  the  desert,  promising  to 
dehver  them  from  all  sorts  of  evils.  Festus,  the  successor 
of  Felix,  dispersed  them.'' 

They  all  have  the  same  career,  both  those  whose  names 
history  has  forgotten  and  those  whose  names  have  sur- 
vived, such  as  John  the  Baptist,  Jesus,  and  Theudas. 
Disciples  of  Hillel,  not  of  Shammai,  they  intend  to  preach 
peacefully  the  speedy  coming  of  the  messianic  era,  as 
Elijah,  Elisha,  Jeremiah,  and  Isaiah  had  done,  and  exhort 
the  people  to  prepare  for  the  great  event.  But  the 
agitation  works  its  effect ;  from  the  very  nature  of  things, 
trouble  arises ;  and  one  fine  day,  whether  they  seek  it  or 
are  drawn  into  it,  the  disturbance  breaks  out.  One  of 
them,  Jesus,  makes  a  sensational  entry  into  Jerusalem  at 
the  time  of  the  Passover,  and  invades  the  temple  with  his 
company ;  another,  an  unknown  agitator,  occupies  the 
Mount  of  Olives.  At  once  the  Roman  authority  inter- 
venes, and  the  prophet  ends  on  the  cross,  if  he  has  not 
been  killed  in  the  ajffray. 

What  traces  did  these  ephemeral  agitators  leave  behind 
them  ?  Once  the  disturbance  was  over,  and  the  agitator 
cut  down  or  crucified,  most  of  his  disciples  scattered ;  but 
a  few  remained  faithful  to  the  memory  of  the  master. 
Flavins  Josephus  speaks  constantly  of  the  disciples  of  this 
or  that  man ;  the  Jewish  books  never  mention  anybody 
without  saying  who  had  been  his  master.  In  point  of 
fact,  we  do  not  know  if  any  disciples  survived  of  Theudas ; 
but  it  is  said  that  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  had  some 
after  their  execution.  They  were  humble  folk,  however, 
doomed  to  disappear  rapidly.  Why  should  they  last? 
None  of  them  had  been  animated  by  a  master  of  genius. 
Jesus  had  taken  up  the  work  of  John  the  Baptist ;  an 
unknown  continued  the  work  of  Jesus  ;  Theudas  followed. 

*  Ibidem.  ^  Jewish  Antiquities,  xx.  7. 


JEWISH  AGITATOES  FEOM  THE  YEAR  1  TO  66     265 

Meantime  there  were,  besides  the  prophet-disciples  of 
Hillel,  the  insurgents,  the  disciples  of  Shammai. 

Flavius  Josephus  distinguishes  between  the  two. 
"  While,"  he  says,  "  the  brigands  filled  Jerusalem  with 
murders,  the  enchanters  seduced  the  people." '  "  The 
former,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  were  impious  men  and 
disturbers  of  the  public  peace,  deceiving  the  people  under 
the  guise  of  religion  ;  the  others  were  murderers,  shedding 
human  blood."  "^  Every  day,  indeed,  the  flood  of  anger 
was  rising  in  Judasa ;  the  old  lesson  of  patience  was 
being  lost. 

In  the  year  4  Judas  the  Gaulonite  and  Sadoc  had 
refused  to  obey  Eome,  and  taken  to  arms.  Then — to 
quote  only  the  chief  episodes  of  the  story — there  was  the 
affair  of  the  standards.  Pontius  Pilate  had  placed  the 
figure  of  Tiberius  Cassar  on  the  standards  of  Jerusalem. 
It  was  a  sacrilegious  violation  of  the  Mosaic  laws.  The 
Jews  advanced  with  such  threatening  entreaties  upon 
Caesarsea,  where  the  procurator  was,  that  he  yielded. 

Pontius  Pilate  having  used  the  money  of  the  temple  on 
public  works,  another  sedition  broke  out.  This  time  he 
drowned  it  in  blood. 

Caligula  wishes  to  have  a  statue  of  himself  placed  in 
the  temple.  There  is  the  same  popular  movement  as  in 
regard  to  the  standards. 

Later,  two  sons  of  Judas  the  Gaulonite,  Jacob  and 
Simeon,  entice  the  zealots  into  a  fresh  insurrection. 
They  are  taken,  and  suffer  the  punishment  of  the  rebel : 
they  are  crucified. 

The  years  which  precede  the  great  insurrection  are 
increasingly  filled  with  disorder  ;  acts  of  fearful  fanaticism 
on  the  part  of  the  Jews,  who  are  more  and  more  exasper- 
ated, and  of  more  and  more  severe  repression  on  the  part 
of  the  Komans.  So  great  a  terror  reigned  at  Jerusalem, 
says  Flavius  Josephus,  that   people  thought   themselves 

'  Jewish  Antiquities,  xx.  6.  "^  Jewish  War,  ii.  23. 


266  THE  EOMAN  PERIOD 

in  no  less  peril  than  they  would  be  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  sanguinary  war.' 

In  the  other  towns  of  Judaea  disturbances  break  out 
between  the  Jews  and  the  pagans,  and  are  followed  by 
abominable  massacres.  The  fiercest  intolerance  predom- 
inates among  the  Jerusalemites ;  when  they  cannot 
persecute  others,  the  Jews  cry  out  that  they  are  being 
persecuted.  As  the  chosen  race  of  Jahveh,  they  have 
rights  over  the  pagans,  but  the  pagans  have  no  rights 
over  them.  Judaic  fanaticism  thus  set  an  example  to  the 
Churches,  which  define  liberty  as  the  right  to  privileges, 
and  regard  themselves  as  persecuted  when  they  are  not 
permitted  to  oppress  their  opponents. 

One  day,  at  Jerusalem,  the  leaders  of  the  active  resist- 
ance party  decide  that  the  sacrifices  offered  to  the  temple 
by  pagans  must  be  rejected,  and  they  refuse  the  victims 
that  are  offered  in  the  name  of  the  emperor.  The  men 
of  the  other  party,  both  Sadducees  and  Pharisees, 
endeavour  to  persuade  the  recusants  to  undo  their 
resolution  ;  they  see  the  danger  that  threatens  the  city. 
It  is  useless ;  the  recusants,  trusting  to  their  greater 
numbers,  think  of  nothing  but  revolt.^ 

The  middle  of  the  first  century  represents,  in  Judaea, 
one  of  the  disturbed  periods  of  history.  A  tempest  of 
furious  madness  blows  over  Jerusalem,  but  the  national 
passion  never  ceases  for  a  moment  to  clothe  itself  in  the 
form  of  a  religious  passion ;  for  the  Jews  religion  is, 
to  the  end,  the  formula  of  nationalism. 

The  great  festivals  which  are  celebrated  every  year  at 
Jerusalem  are  always  the  occasion  of  trouble.  Jerusalem 
is  not  an  oriental  capital ;  it  is  a  holy  city  ;  it  could  best 
be  compared  to  the  Mecca  of  to-day.  The  Mosaic  law 
has  enjoined  that,  on  each  of  the  great  festivals,  the  Jews 
must  come  to  the  temple,  the  unique  temple  at  Jerusalem, 
to  present  themselves  before  their  god. 

*  Jewish  War,  ii.  23.  ^  Jewish  War,  ii.  30. 


JEWISH  AGITATOKS  FEOM  THE  YEAR  1  TO  66     267 

Three  times  in  a  year  shall  all  your  males  appear  before 
Jahveh,  your  god,  in  the  place  which  he  shall  choose ;  in 
the  feast  of  unleavened  bread,  and  in  the  feast  of  weeks, 
and  in  the  feast  of  tabernacles.* 

The  law,  once  framed  for  a  country  that  consisted  of 
Jerusalem  and  its  outskirts,  remains  the  law  of  a  country 
that  embraces  Palestine,  to  say  nothing  of  the  colonies 
scattered  on  every  side.  Judaism  is  maintained,  with  all 
its  commandments  ;  it  will  not  renounce  a  single  verse  of 
its  Thora ;  it  knows  that  the  duties  it  continues  to  impose 
are  a  source  of  strength  to  be  preserved.  Hence,  at  each 
of  the  three  great  festivals,  immense  pilgrimages,  in 
which  the  national  life  is  sustained  in  the  form  of  a 
religious  communion,  meet  in  the  holy  city. 

At  ordinary  times  Jerusalem  has  thirty  thousand  souls  ; 
at  the  time  of  the  festivals  the  pilgrims  bring  up  its 
population  to  a  million  feverish  minds,  wild-beating 
hearts,  and  howling  mouths.  All  these  move  restlessly 
at  the  foot  of  the  temple,  the  centre  of  the  world,  the 
house  of  Jahveh.  The  Roman  cohorts  watch  them  ;  but 
the  anger  around  them  rumbles,  and  the  fever  rises.  No 
one  knows  exactly  the  extent  of  the  power  of  Rome. 
The  prophets  preach  from  the  steps  ;  the  zealots  glide 
through  the  throng,  sword  in  hand ;  and  men  repeat  the 
unforgettable  promises  of  Jahveh. 

These  promises — the  avenging  of  insults,  the  conquest 
of  the  world,  the  triumph  of  Judaism  from  the  Euphrates 
to  the  gates  of  the  West — should  be  fulfilled  by  Jahveh 
acting  alone,  by  his  Messiah,  who  will  appear  in  the 
heavens  above  with  a  train  of  Kerubim.  By  forgetting 
the  old  verse  :  "  It  is  not  on  thy  bow  that  thou  shalt  rely, 
nor  by  thy  sword  that  thou  shalt  conquer,"  by  following 
Shammai  instead  of  Hillel,  the  Jews  of  Jerusalem  have 
condemned  their  city.  The  revolt  of  the  year  66  ended 
in  the  ruin  of  the  city  and  of  Judaea  in  the  year  70.  And 
in  their  effort  to  meet  Rome  face  to  face,  with  open  war, 

*  Deuteronomy  xvi.  16. 


268  THE  EOMAN  PEEIOD 

the  Jews  of  Jerusalem  would  have  destroyed  Judaism, 
together  with  the  city,  if  it  had  not  been  saved  by  the 
men  of  the  subterraneous  war,  the  humble  and  patient 
Jews  of  the  Dispersion. 


Chapter  IV. 

THE  INVASION 

§  1.  Notes  on  the  Dispersion. 

When,  in  the  year  70  of  the  present  era,  the  Emperor 
Titus,  after  one  of  the  most  terrible  sieges  that  is  known 
to  history,  took  Jerusalem  by  assault,  burned  the  temple, 
destroyed  the  city,  and  put  an  end  to  the  political  destiny 
of  the  Jewish  people,  Judaism  flourished  over  nearly  the 
whole  extent  of  the  Graeco-Koman  world. 

The  spread  of  the  Jews  over  the  Graeco-Eoman  world 
is  called  the  Dispersion ;  the  Greeks  called  it  the  Dias- 
pora. We  have  often,  in  the  course  of  our  study,  touched 
upon  episodes  of  the  Dispersion,  and  it  may  be  useful  to 
make  a  general  survey  of  it  before  we  conclude.  But  as 
the  Dispersion  did  not  attain  its  proper  character  until 
the  time  when  the  Jews  took  the  books  of  the  Law  with 
them  over  the  world,  a  few  lines  will  suffice  for  the 
emigrations  before  the  fifth  century. 

It  will  be  remembered  how  the  inhabitants  of  Samaria 
in  721,  and  those  of  Jerusalem  in  599  and  588,  were 
deported  by  the  kings  of  Assur  and  Babylon  to  the  banks 
of  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates.  At  the  time  of  the 
great  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  empires  conquest  was 
always  followed  by  deportation.  A  Salmanasur,  king  of 
Assur,  or  a  Nabuchodonosor,  king  of  Babylon,  fell  with 
his  vast  army  upon  the  kingdom  of  Samaria  or  the 
kingdom  of  Judah.  The  country  was  looted,  the  towns 
were  sacked,  and  the  conqueror  led  away,  in  immense 
flocks,  the  greater  part  of  the  vanquished  population,  as 
well  as  the  treasures  of  their  temples  and  harems.  The 
lowly,  the  weak,  the  powerless,  were  left  in  the  devastated 

269 


270  THE  INVASION 

fields  or  amid  the  ruins  of  the  dismantled  towns.  The 
finest  part  of  the  population,  the  soldiers  and  the  agri- 
cultural workers,  went  with  their  leaders  to  populate  some 
distant  territory. 

The  Samaritans  had  been  in  Assyria  nearly  two  hun- 
dred years,  and  the  Jerusalemites  fifty  years  in  Babylonia, 
when,  in  538,  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia,  took  Babylon,  and, 
it  is  said,  allowed  the  exiles  to  return  to  their  countries. 
But  we  have  seen  that,  contrary  to  the  traditional  opinion, 
only  a  very  small  number  of  the  Jews  left  the  banks  of 
the  Euphrates  to  return  to  Jerusalem,  The  rebuilding 
of  Jerusalem,  the  reconstitution  of  the  little  Jewish  State, 
the  work  of  perseverance  and  passion  which  is  called  the 
Restoration,  was  accomplished  by  the  sons  of  the  men 
who  had  remained  in  the  ruins  of  the  city. 

What  became  of  the  Jews  who  remained  in  Babylonia, 
and  of  the  Samaritans  who  remained  in  Assyria  ? 

The  Samaritan  exiles  were  lost  in  the  chaos  of  peoples 
that  swarmed  about  the  Tigris.  Two  hundred  years  of 
exile  must  have  erased  all  trace  of  their  not  very  pro- 
nounced nationality.  It  was  probably  too  late  when  the 
tolerance  of  Cyrus  permitted  them  to  renew  their  relations 
with  their  former  country. 

The  Jews  of  Babylonia,  on  the  other  hand,  had  not  had 
time,  in  fifty  years,  to  lose  their  nationality.  But  the 
Assyriological  documents  show  them  to  us  mingling  with 
the  surrounding  population.  They  would  have  been 
gradually  absorbed,  like  their  brothers  of  Samaria,  or  of 
Elephantine,  if  emigration  had  not  brought  among  them 
Jews  of  the  new  school,  the  Esdras  school,  Jews  who  had 
with  them  the  Mosaic  law.  Instead  of  the  Jews  of 
Babylon  restoring  Judaism  at  Jerusalem,  it  was  the  Jews 
of  the  restored  Jerusalem  who  gave  new  life  to  Babylonian 
Judaism. 

There  was  constant  communication  between  the 
Euphrates  and  Jerusalem.  The  road  from  the  Eu- 
phrates to  Jerusalem  does  not  go  straight  from  east  to 


THE  INVASION  271 

west,  A  straight  line  from  Jerusalem  to  Babylon  would 
cross  the  desert  of  Syria,  which  is  impracticable.  Even 
in  our  time  the  caravans  which  leave  Jerusalem  go  straight 
north  to  Damascus.  There  they  at  last  turn  to  the  east, 
and,  when  they  reach  the  Euphrates,  they  descend  the 
bank  of  the  river  until  they  reach  the  field  of  ruins  which 
was  Babylon.  The  road  is  not  more  than  a  thirty  days' 
journey.  It  was  one  of  the  busiest  of  ancient  Asia.  By 
it  there  penetrated  into  Jerusalem  those  Babylonian 
elements  that  formed  the  culture-medium  in  which  the 
Jewish  soul  began  to  develop.  By  it,  on  account  of  the 
constant  exchanges  between  the  colony  and  the  metro- 
polis, the  latter  sent  to  the  colony  the  nationalist  spirit  it 
had  itself  created,  while  the  colony  sent  to  Jerusalem  the 
great  Babylonian  education  that  would  give  it  its  form. 

For  five  centuries  the  Babylonian  Jews  will  continue 
faithfully  to  send  the  tithes  prescribed  in  the  Mosaic  law 
to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  to  come  thither  on  pil- 
grimage at  the  time  of  the  great  festivals.  Afterwards, 
when  Judaea  has  been  destroyed  by  Eoman  legions,  and 
the  Jewish  colonies  of  the  western  world  will  be  rapidly 
Hellenising,  Babylonia  will  remain  a  Jewish  centre,  shel- 
tered from  dangerous  novelties,  and  the  Talmudic  growth 
will  expand  there  in  peace. 

The  movement  from  which  Christianity  was  to  issue 
took  place  in  the  Jewish  colonies  of  the  western  world. 
We  know  what  the  development  of  the  Jewish  people  was 
from  the  time  of  Esdras  ;  but  we  must  not  forget  that, 
although  it  gave  birth  to  a  soul  wild  enough  to  dream  of 
conquering  the  world,  Jerusalem  long  remained  a  poor 
State,  limited  to  one  city  and  its  outskirts.  The 
expansion  first  took  place  in  Palestine.  It  began  at  the 
beginning  of  the  fourth  century,  shortly  after  the  time  of 
Esdras.  History  has  not  preserved  the  details  of  this 
emigration,  but  the  earliest  Biblical  books  show  the 
settling  of  a  certain  number  of  Jewish  families  outside 
the  limits  of  the  State  of  Jerusalem. 


272  THE  INVASION 

In  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  about  the  year 
350,  shortly  before  the  destruction  of  the  Persian 
monarchy,  deportation  begins  its  work  once  more.  The 
Phoenicians  having  risen  against  the  Persian  emperor 
Artaxerxes  Ochus,  the  Jews  also  rebelled ;  like  his  Assy- 
rian and  Babylonian  predecessor,  the  Persian,  after 
reducing  them,  sent  a  certain  number  of  them  to  Egypt 
and  Hyrcania. 

A  few  years  later  Alexander  the  Great  spread  his  rule 
over  the  western  Asiatic  world.  He  wished  to  establish, 
under  the  hegemony  of  Greece,  a  new  world,  in  which 
the  small  States  which  Persia  had  left  isolated  might  be 
amalgamated.  After  his  death  his  successors  continued 
his  work,  amid  the  war  which  they  waged  unceasingly 
against  each  other.  New  provinces  had  been  formed, 
new  towns  were  created,  and  mixed  populations  were 
brought  to  them  from  every  side.  Alexandria  in  Egypt, 
and  Antioch  in  Syria,  were  the  chief  of  these  cities. 

It  seems  that  Alexandria  and  Antioch  received  a 
number  of  Jewish  families  almost  immediately.  Tradition 
affirms  that  Alexander  and  his  successors  made  it  a  point 
of  honour  to  induce  men  of  Judasa  to  migrate  to  their 
new  capitals.  The  fact  is  doubtful ;  it  is  better  to  inquire 
to  what  extent  the  Jewish  expansion  at  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  was  due  to  deportation  and  to  voluntary 
emigration. 

We  have  seen  the  frightful  misfortunes  in  which  the 
Jews  struggled  during  the  last  part  of  the  fourth  century. 
Shortly  after  the  rebellion  against  Artaxerxes  Ochus  and 
the  subsequent  deportation,  the  wars  of  the  successors  of 
Alexander  desolate  Judaea,  while  intestine  quarrels  fling 
Jerusalem,  Samaria,  and  Edom  against  each  other.  It  is 
the  abominable  period  reflected  in  the  earlier  prophets. 

Among  the  events  of  this  terrible  period  the  fact  of  the 
taking  of  Jerusalem  by  assault,  followed  by  a  new 
deportation,  seems  to  be  historical.  It  is  almost  certain 
that  in  320  Ptolemy  Soter  took  Jerusalem  by  storm,  after 


THE  INVASION  273 

a  siege,  and  sent  his  prisoners  to  Egypt.  The  deporta- 
tion under  Ptolemy  Soter,  after  the  deportation  under 
Artaxerxes  Ochus,  is  enough  to  justify  the  imprecations 
of  the  prophets ;  but  it  is  probable  that,  in  the  course  of 
all  these  wars,  raids  brought  troops  of  Jewish  prisoners 
to  both  Egypt  and  Syria.  At  the  very  base  of  the  Jewish 
expansion  round  the  Mediterranean  we  are  bound  to  put 
the  violent  removal  of  Jewish  families  from  their  homes, 
and  their  despatch  to  Egyptian  and  Syrian  towns.  The 
prophets  repeatedly  speak  of  the  Jews  outside  of  Judaea 
as  exiles ;  and  we  cannot  doubt  that  a  large  number  owed 
their  exile  to  violence. 

But  there  were  also  voluntary  exiles.  The  soil  of 
Judaea  is  not  rich  enough  to  feed  a  compact  population ; 
and  the  endless  misfortunes  that  fell  on  it  during  the 
second  half  of  the  fourth  century  were  bound  to  accelerate 
the  emigration. 

Egypt  has  always  been,  and  is  to-day,  the  country 
preferred  by  Palestinians  who  are  too  miserable  in  their 
own  land.  The  road  that  led  from  Jerusalem  to  Alex- 
andria was  followed  by  the  Jews  of  the  fourth  century, 
as  it  has  been  by  the  Jews  of  all  periods.  About 
the  year  300  the  Greek  historian  Hecataeus  of  Abdera 
was  able  to  obtain  information  at  Alexandria  on  Jewish 
affairs  and  certain  of  the  Mosaic  laws.  An  inscription 
witnesses  that  there  was  a  synagogue  not  far  from  the 
city  by  the  middle  of  the  third  century. 

On  the  northern  side  another  road  led  to  Antioch,  and 
from  there  to  Asia  Minor.  All  these  were  open  paths  for 
emigrants.  The  Phoenician  ports  also,  west  from  Jerusalem, 
attracted  the  poorer  Jews  who  had  not  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence in  their  own  land  ;  Tyre  was  soon  full  of  them. 
The  second  half  of  the  fourth  century  marks  the  begin- 
ning of  the  great  movement  of  the  men  of  Jerusalem 
toward  exile. 

We  must  not,  therefore,  imagine  the  Jews  of  the  Dis- 
persion as  pioneers   going   out   to   spread   the   name   of 

T 


274  THE  INVASION 

Jahveh  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  Deportation  and 
emigration,  brutal  constraint  and  misery,  had  done  their 
work,  and  the  prophets  at  Jerusalem  unanimously 
lamented  the  brethren  who  had  been  torn  from  their 
city ;  with  one  voice  they  sang  this  one  hope  and  one 
consolation,  the  return  of  the  exiles. 

Instead  of  the  exiles  returning  to  the  mother  country, 
new  emigrants  forsook  her  unceasingly.  Increase  and 
multiply,  the  law  had  said  to  the  men  of  Jerusalem  ;  and 
the  Jewish  people  increased  and  multiplied  above  all 
others.  Emigration  spread  into  Egypt,  the  East,  Syria, 
Asia  Minor,  the  Greek  islands,  and  even  beyond.  As  we 
advance  in  history,  more  numerous  and  more  precise 
documents  make  plain  to  us  the  Jewish  expansion  round 
the  Mediterranean.  The  movement,  begun  at  the  end  of 
the  fourth  century,  continues  in  the  third.  The  despair, 
the  regret,  the  sufferings,  and  the  hopes  of  the  exiles,  and 
the  promises  that  they  will  return,  fill  the  two  Isaiahs. 
The  third  century  is  the  century  of  emigration  ;  the  second 
will  be  the  same.  In  the  second  century  the  Jewish 
colony  at  Alexandria  becomes  very  large. 

The  exodus  will  continue  inexorably  during  the  Macha- 
bsean  and  the  Herodian  periods.  At  the  height  of  the 
Machabeean  wars  deportation  will  begin  again  ;  Antiochus 
Epiphanes  and  his  successors  will  send  a  part  of  their 
Jewish  prisoners  to  Greece,  where  they  will  settle.  A 
century  later,  in  63,  Pompey,  having  taken  Jerusalem  by 
storm,  will  send  a  hundred  thousand  Jewish  slaves  to 
Italy,  Flavius  Josephus  says.  But  it  is  emigration  rather 
than  deportation  that  will  fill  with  Jews  the  towns  of  the 
Mediterranean  basin,  and  every  year  vessels  will  leave  the 
Phoenician  ports  with  their  mournful  human  herds. 

§2. 

What  was  to  become  of  all  these  exiles  and  emigrants  ? 
Would  they,  as  they  were  poured  upon  the  foreign  soil. 


THE  INVASION  275 

mingle  with  the  native  population  and,  while  influencing 
them,  insensibly  disappear  in  them  '?  If  they  had  been 
thus  assimilated,  Judaism  would  have  disappeared  after 
the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  and  there  would  have  been  no 
Christianity.  But  they  were  not  so  assimilated.  The 
Jewish  element  resisted  mixture  ;  cast  into  the  depths  of 
the  most  varied  cities,  over  the  Grseco-Roman  world,  the 
Jews  preserved  their  individuality  in  them.  Their  rule 
was  not  to  mingle  with  people  whom  they  regarded  as 
pagans  ;  people  whom  they  despised,  and  who  despised 
them  for  their  lowliness  ;  people  whom  they  hated,  and 
who  hated  them  for  their  separatist  pride.  And  they 
found  in  the  unwearying  stubbornness  of  their  soul  the 
strength  to  persevere. 

In  the  worst  situation  in  which  wretched  emigrants 
could  be  placed,  they  sacrificed  nothing  of  their  fierce 
nationality.  Always  grouped  together  and  closely  united, 
occupying  distinct  quarters  in  their  towns,  they  opposed 
a  wall  of  iron  to  every  attempt  to  invade  them.  They 
determined  to  remain,  and  they  remained,  in  the  midst 
of  foreign  and  hostile  populations,  the  same  men  that  they 
had  been  in  their  own  country  of  Judaea.  They  retained 
their  customs,  clothing,  and  religion,  secured  privileges, 
observed  their  laws,  and  remained  Jews. 

But,  while  they  preserved  their  institutions  and 
practices,  they  had  not  kept  their  language.  In  the  first 
century  before  the  present  era  Greek  (not  Latin,  as  one 
might  think)  was  the  universal  language  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean basin.  The  Jews  of  the  Dispersion  gradually 
began  to  speak  Greek,  and — a  notable  event — the  Bible 
was  translated  into  Greek.  In  this  way  Judaism,  and 
Christianity  afterwards,  found  the  means  of  propaganda  ; 
Judaism  at  Alexandria  was  renovated  by  contact  with 
Hellenic  culture ;  and  the  only  sacrifice  that  the  Jews  of 
the  Dispersion  made  of  their  inheritance,  the  abandon- 
ment of  the  Hebrew  tongue,  would  contribute  to  their 
development. 


276  THE  INVASION 

The  date  of  the  translation  of  the  Septuagint  (as  the 
Greek  translation  of  the  Bible  is  called)  is  much  disputed. 
Josephus  relates  that  the  "  Book  of  the  Law  "  was  trans- 
lated in  the  reign  and  at  the  command  of  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus,  in  277,  which  we  cannot  admit.  In  277 
there  was  not  yet  a  "Book  of  the  Law  " ;  there  was  merely 
a  series  of  separate  pieces,  not  yet  put  together;  the  latest 
Levitic  mashal  were  scarcely  finished.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  translation  of  the  Mosaic  law  was  undertaken  in 
order  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  Jews  of  Alexandria,  when 
they  no  longer  understood  Hebrew,  and  when  they  were 
numerous  enough,  and  the  colony  important  enough,  to 
make  so  large  a  work  indispensable  and  possible.  These 
different  considerations  bring  us  to  the  second  century 
before  the  present  era,  and,  in  point  of  fact,  the  first  proof 
we  have  of  the  existence  of  a  Greek  Bible  is  about  the 
^year  130  (the  arrival  of  the  grandson  of  Ben-Sira  at 
Jerusalem).  The  Jewish  Bible  thus  became,  on  its 
translation  into  Greek,  an  instrument  of  propaganda 
through  the  whole  Greeco-Koman  world,  instead  of  being 
a  document  hopelessly  closed  against  western  peoples. 

Thanks  to  the  laws,  customs,  and  religion  to  which 
they  clung,  the  rule  of  isolation  that  they  accepted  or, 
rather,  claimed,  the  hatred  they  felt  for  the  goim  and  the 
hatred  they  engendered  in  the  goim,  and  in  spite  of  their 
having  forgotten  their  mother  tongue,  these  wretched 
emigrants  and  exiles  remained  Jews  at  all  times  and  in  all 
places,  from  father  to  son.  They  were  bound  to  become 
very  numerous.  Not  one  of  their  colonies  disappearing, 
or  being  assimilated,  or  mixing  with  the  population,  they 
would  necessarily  increase  in  importance.  The  Graeco- 
Koman  world  ought,  logically,  to  be  filled  with  Jews  in 
time.     Was  it  so  in  reality  ? 

Let  us  hear  the  witnesses. 

First  half  of  the  second  century. — The  book  of  Esther, 
the  most  ferociously  and  sanguinarily  Judaic  of  all  the 
books  of  the  Bible,  shows  us  the  Jews  spread  over  the 


THE  INVASION  277 

whole  oriental  world,  from  Egypt  to  Persia  and  on  to  the 
islands  of  the  sea,  and  so  numerous,  so  powerful,  and  so 
dangerous,  that  the  first  Antisemite  makes  his  appearance 
in  history  in  the  person  of  Haman.  Haman  speaks 
thus  : — 

There  is  a  certain  people  scattered  abroad  and  dispersed 
among  the  people  in  all  the  provinces  of  thy  kingdom,  and 
their  laws  are  diverse  from  those  of  all  peoples ' 

And  Haman  adds  : — 

Neither  keep  they  the  king's  laws,  therefore  it  is  not 
for  the  king's  profit  to  suffer  them. 

The  book  of  Esther  is  not  history  ;  it  interests  the 
historian  rather  by  the  situations  it  describes  than  the 
events  it  relates. 

Let  us  hear  the  rest  of  the  witnesses. 

End  of  the  second  century,  or  heginning  of  the  first. — 
The  Alexandrian  Jew  who  wrote  in  the  name  of  the  Sibyl 
speaks  thus  : — 

Every  land  and  every  sea  is  tilled  with  them.^ 

About  the  year  1. — We  pass  over  a  century,  and  reach 

the  age  of  Augustus.     The  world  is  now  Roman.     The 

witness    is    a    pagan    writer,    the    historian-geographer 

Strabo : — 

The  Jews  have  penetrated  into  every  town,  and  it  is  not 
easy  to  find  a  single  spot  in  the  inhabited  world  that  has 
not  received  this  people,  and  is  not  dominated  by  it.* 

Middle  of  the  first  century  of  the  present  era. — Less 
than  fifty  years  after  Strabo,  Philo,  the  most  celebrated 
and  learned  of  the  Alexandrian  Jews,  gave  fresh  testimony 
to  the  invasion  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world  by  his  com- 
patriots.    His  words  are  : — 

Jerusalem  is  not  only  the  metropolis  of  Judaea,  but  of 
most  countries.  It  has  sent  colonies  into  the  contiguous 
countries,  Egypt,  Phoenicia,  Syria,  and  Coele-Syria,  and 
into  more  distant  countries,  Pamphilia,  Cilicia,  most  of 

*  Esther  iii.  8.  ^  Qraclcs  of  the  Sibyl,  iii.  271. 

^  Strabo,  quoted  by  Josephus,  Jewish  Antiquities,  xiv.  12. 


278  THE  INVASION 

the  Asiatic  States,  even  to  Bithynia,  to  the  confines  of 
Pontus,  to  Europe,  to  Thessaly,  Boeotia,  Macedonia, 
Aetolia,  Attica,  Argos,  Corinth,  and  the  most  populous 
and  finest  parts  of  Peloponnesus ;  and  not  only  has  it 
opened  its  settlements  on  the  continent,  but  also  in  the 
principal  islands,  Euboea,  Cyprus,  and  Crete ;  I  do  not 
speak  of  the  lands  beyond  the  Euphrates,  because  all  of 
them,  including  Babylon  and  the  neighbouring  satrapies, 
have,  with  few  exceptions,  Jewish  inhabitants.' 

It  is  a  text  of  extraordinary  importance,  and  it  is  con- 
firmed every  day  by  the  inscriptions  discovered. 

End  of  the  first  century. — Flavins  Josephus,  who  wrote 
in  the  last  years  of  the  first  century  of  the  present  era, 
gives  us  many  indications  of  the  state  of  the  Dispersion  in 
his  time.  In  Syria  the  Jewish  inhabitants  are  in  the 
majority ;  at  Antioch  they  have  a  splendid  synagogue  ;  at 
Damascus  they  number  more  than  ten  thousand,  and 
most  of  the  women  are  Judaisers ;  they  are  settled  in 
Mesopotamia,  along  the  whole  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  and  in 
Cyrenaica.     In  Egypt  they  number  a  million. 

The  New  Testament,  in  fine,  is  not  a  less  witness,  and 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,  especially,  assume  the  existence 
of  synagogues  in  all  the  large  towns  of  the  Empire. 

It  remains  only  to  show  how  Eome  itself  was  invaded 
by  Judaism. 

It  seems  that  there  were  Jews  at  Rome  from  the  second 
century  before  the  present  era.  According  to  Valerius 
Maximus,  the  prastor  Hispalus,  in  139,  expelled  the  Jews 
from  the  city  on  account  of  their  proselytism.  Flavins 
Josephus  relates,  as  we  saw,  that  Pompey,  in  63,  sent  his 
prisoners  as  slaves  to  Rome.  But  the  first  contemporary 
witness  to  the  existence  of  a  Jewish  colony  in  Italy  is 
Cicero  ;  and  his  testimony  is  decisive. 

Cicero  pleads  for  the  proconsul  Flaccus,  who  is  charged 
with  exaction  in  Syria.  He  comes  to  speak  of  sums  of 
money  that  the  Jews  of  Asia  Minor  had  sent  to  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem,  according  to  the  practice  of  their 

*  Philo,  Legatio  ad  Gaium,  letter  of  Agrippa  to  Caligula. 


THE  INVASION  279 

religion,  which  Flaccus  is  accused  of  diverting.  He  then 
approaches  the  tribunal.  He  reproaches  the  accuser  with 
having  secured  the  trial  on  the  Aurelian  steps,  in  the  open 
Forum,  instead  of  in  the  enclosure  reserved  for  civic 
affairs,  and  having  chosen  this  spot  because  of  the  crowd 
of  Jews  who  would  be  there. 

"  Thou  knowest,"  he  says  to  the  accuser,  "  how  great  is 
their  number,  their  union,  their  power "' 

And  he  says  that  he  is  going  to  speak  law,  so  that  he 
will  be  heard  by  the  judges  only.  Later  he  congratulates 
his  client  for  having  dared  to  brave  these  Jews  who  some- 
times disturb  public  assemblies. 

Thus,  barely  three  years  after  Pompey  has  sent  his 
Jewish  prisoners  to  Eome,  Cicero  speaks,  not  merely  of 
the  number  and  unity,  but  the  power,  of  the  Jews  at 
Eome ;  and  they  are  regarded  as  formidable,  and  can 
disturb  a  proconsul.  The  settlement  of  the  Jews  at 
Rome  was  accomplished  more  than  half-a-century  before 
the  Christian  era. 

A  hundred  years  later,  Seneca,  confirming  the  testimony 
of  Strabo  and  Philo,  will  express  a  fact  historically  known 
in  his  time  in  saying  of  the  Jews  that  "  this  nation  [the 
most  rascally  of  all,  he  adds]  has  done  so  well  that  its 
practices  are  now  established  over  the  whole  earth." ^ 


§3. 

The  Jewish  groups,  thus  scattered  throughout  the 
Graeco-Roman  world,  had  had  at  first,  in  point  of  organi- 
sation, the  form  of  foreign  settlements.  Closed  associa- 
tions, they  had  originally  represented  the  effort  of  the 
emigrants  to  defend  and  maintain  themselves  in  the 
midst  of  a  hostile  world.     Little  by  little,  as  the  years 

'  Cicero,  Fro  Flacco,  28. 
^  Seneca,  quoted  by  St.  Augustiue,  De  Civilate  Dei,  vi.  10. 


280  THE  INVASION 

rolled  on,  these  associations  had  become  permanent ;  the 
hope  of  returning  to  their  mother  country  became  more 
and  more  chimerical ;  the  emigrants  understood  that 
they  must  die  in  the  land  of  exile. 

As  we  have  said,  the  exiled  or  emigrant  Jews  had  at  all 
times  and  in  all  places  preserved  their  laws,  their  usages, 
their  religion,  and,  in  a  general  way,  their  cast  of  mind. 
Nevertheless  a  great  evolution  of  the  Jewish  soul  would 
be  brought  about  by  the  Dispersion.  In  Judaea  the  Jews 
were  devoted  exclusively  to  agriculture  and  pasture. 
Industry  and  commerce  barely  existed ;  the  Jewish  spirit, 
absorbed  in  its  nationalist  and  religious  fanaticism,  dis- 
liked meddling  with  business.  The  Koman,  a  soldier  and 
administrator,  hated  and  despised  business ;  the  Jew  had 
usually  the  same  hatred  and  contempt  out  of  fanaticism. 
Commerce  is  anathematised  in  the  Bible.  The  Greeks, 
unlike  the  Komans  and  Jews,  were  born  merchants ;  it 
was  an  additional  reason  why  commerce  should  be  odious 
to  the  uncompromising  prophets.  We  must  conceive  the 
Jews  of  Jerusalem  as  orientals  incapable  of  any  sustained 
labour,  interested  only  in  politics  and  religion,  using  up 
their  days  in  controversy  about  the  temple,  after  doing 
the  smallest  amount  of  work  that  would  preserve  them 
from  dying  of  hunger.  The  formula  of  Jerusalemitic 
Judaism  was  always  that  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount : — 

Behold  the  fowls  of  the  air Consider  the  lilies  of  the 

field ' 

The  Dispersion  gradually  converted  the  Jews  into  the 
merchants  who  were  familiar  to  the  Middle  Ages  and 
modern  times.  What  enterprise,  indeed,  was  there  for 
these  emigrants  and  exiles  in  towns  where  they  infallibly 
remained  pariahs  ?  The  lowest  occupations  at  first.  The 
main  point  was  to  live.  The  indefatigable  perseverance 
that  expressed  itself  at  Jerusalem  in  resisting  anti- 
national    influences  found    expression,  among   the  Jews 

»  Matthew  vi.  26  and  28. 


THE  INVASION  281 

of  the  colonies,  first  in  a  determination  to  remain  Jews, 
then  to  ascend  the  steps  that  lead  from  the  lowest  occu- 
pations to  high  commerce.  About  the  year  6  they  are 
still,  with  few  exceptions,  in  the  humblest  forms  of 
commerce.  But  the  evolution  has  begun ;  there  is  a 
tense  activity  in  the  ghettoes.  Does  not  the  Mosaic  law 
permit  in  the  colonies  what  it  forbids  at  Jerusalem  ?  Is 
not  usury  permitted  in  regard  to  the  goim,  though  for- 
bidden between  Jew  and  Jew  ?  While  Jerusalem  is  the 
city  of  political  and  religious  exaltation,  the  Jewish  colo- 
nies are  ant-hills,  in  which  a  small  world  of  miserable 
folk  busy  themselves  in  the  obscure  getting  of  their  daily 
bread. 

The  generations  go  by.  The  children,  the  grand- 
children, of  the  emigrants  are  now  attached  to  the  soil 
on  which  their  fathers  settled,  cursing  their  destiny. 
They  remain  Jewish  in  heart,  thought,  and  ways.  Never 
for  a  moment  do  they  mingle  with  the  goim.  They  have 
kept  their  individuality.  They  belong,  however,  to  the 
country  ;  they  become  national,  from  the  very  nature  of 
things ;  in  a  word,  they  cease  to  be  foreigners.  The 
Jewish  communities  are  no  longer  the  associations  of 
foreigners  that  they  were  at  first ;  they  become  private 
societies.     It  is  the  second  form  of  their  organisation. 

But  these  private  societies,  formed  for  the  security  of 
the  commercial  as  well  as  the  religious  interests  of  their 
members,  have  a  peculiar  character :  they  have  the 
appearance  of  being  purely  religious  societies.  The 
synagogue  is  their  centre  in  every  city  ;  the  governor  of 
the  synagogue  is  their  leader.  Religion,  in  fact,  is  the 
bond  and  the  soul  of  these  communities.  The  asso- 
ciation of  interests  in  the  Jewish  colonies  cannot,  any 
more  than  nationalism  at  Jerusalem,  assume  any  other 
form  than  that  of  religion.  Another  characteristic  feature 
is  that  the  Jewish  communities  now  embrace,  not  only 
Jews,  but  Judaisers.  Natives  of  the  country  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  Jews  have  begun  to  Judaise,  or  to  experi- 


282  THE  INVASION 

ence  the  Jewish  influence.  They  have  learned  about 
Jewish  matters,  observe  certain  Jewish  laws,  and  live  the 
Jewish  life.  The  great  work  of  propaganda  has  set  in. 
And  the  synagogue  opens  its  doors  to  the  proselytes  who 
come  to  it. 

As  private  societies  under  the  form  of  religious  societies, 
then,  the  majority  of  the  Jewish  colonies  organised  them- 
selves about  the  beginning  of  the  present  era ;  thus, 
especially,  were  organised  the  Jewish  colonies  at  Kome. 
In  some  cities,  however,  the  Jews  attained  a  higher 
organisation,  and  reached  a  situation  not  unlike  that  of 
the  corporations  which  the  Komans  formed  in  non- 
Eoman  countries.  When  the  Romans  settled  or  travelled 
in  non-Roman  lands,  they  were  in  a  privileged  position  ; 
they  were  independent  of  the  municipalities  in  which 
they  were,  and  they  kept  their  ow^n  laws  and  jurisdiction. 
It  is  hardly  surprising  in  men  who  had  conquered  the 
whole  known  world  ;  it  is  not  more  surprising  in  the 
Jews,  the  eternally  conquered,  if  we  remember  the  im- 
measurable power  of  resistance  and  perseverance  that 
sustained  the  miserable  and  admirable  people  through  so 
many  trials. 

Strabo,  in  the  text  that  we  have  quoted  above,  explains 
that  the  Jews  had  some  such  position  in  Alexandria  and 
Cyrenaica  : — 

In  Egypt  the  Jews  have  received  separate  quarters  to 
live  in  ;  at  Alexandria  an  extensive  quarter  has  been  set 
aside  for  them.  At  their  head  there  is  an  ethnarch  who 
administers  the  affairs  of  the  colony,  presides  at  litigation, 
and  sees  to  the  execution  of  contracts  and  regulations,  like 
the  head  of  an  independent  State. ^ 

There  the  Jewish  colony  no  longer  needed  to  take  the 
form  of  a  religious  association  in  order  to  maintain  itself. 
Religion  was  always  the  principle  of  union,  but  the  colony 
had  become  a  sort  of  political  federation — a  State  within 
the  State  ;    Strabo  says  Wvog,  a  people  apart,  a  vassal 

'  strabo,  quoted  by  Josephus,  Jewish  Antiquities,  xiv.  12. 


THE  INVASION  283 

rather  than  a  subject  of  the  local  government.  Let  us 
hasten  to  say,  however,  that  this  extraordinary  state  of 
things  does  not  seem  to  have  been  found  outside  of  Alex- 
andria and  Cyrenaica.  It  is  due  to  the  great  number  of 
Alexandrian  and  Cyrenian  Jews,  and  doubtless  to  the 
weakness  of  the  last  kings  of  Egypt. 

The  Komans  exacted  only  submission  and  the  payment 
of  taxes ;  when  they  took  Egypt,  they  accepted  the 
accomplished  fact.  Moreover,  all  forms  of  organisation 
of  the  Jewish  colonies,  from  the  foreign  settlement  and 
the  private  society  with  a  religious  form  to  the  political 
confederation  of  Alexandria  or  Cyrenaica,  assumed 
religious  liberty.  Eoman  toleration  had  given  the  Jewish 
colonies,  not  merely  religious  liberty,  but  privileges.  The 
Empire  recognised  all  religions.  For  the  Romans  a 
religion  was  the  symbol  of  a  people  ;  when  they  opened 
the  Empire  to  all  peoples,  they  opened  their  Capitol  to  all 
the  gods.  There  was  only  the  theory  of  the  supremacy 
of  the  patron-god  of  the  city,  Jupiter  Capitolinus,  and 
afterwards  of  the  cult  of  the  Emperor,  which  similarly 
symbolised  the  dominion  of  Rome,  that  was  incompatible 
with  the  Jewish  religion.  Caligula  endeavoured  to  impose 
it  on  the  Jews ;  they  resisted,  and  the  Romans  had  too 
deep  a  political  sense  to  insist.  The  Roman  government 
did  not  set  up  a  priori  theories ;  practical  needs  and  local 
considerations  preceded  abstract  principles.  The  Jewish 
communities  were,  throughout  the  whole  Empire,  dis- 
pensed from  celebrating  the  cult  of  Csesar, 

Another  privilege  relieved  them  of  military  service. 
Military  service  seemed  to  the  Jews  incompatible  with  the 
observance  of  some  of  the  laws  of  Moses,  especially  that 
of  the  Sabbath.  Roman  policy  declined  to  exasperate 
fanatics. 

By  a  third  privilege  the  Jews  had  the  right,  as  long  as 
the  temple  existed  at  Jerusalem,  not  only  to  visit  it 
from  all  parts  in  pilgrimages  of  thousands  at  the  time 
of   the  great   festivals,  but  to  send   their  tribute  to  it. 


284  THE  INVASION 

This  right  was  the  consequence  of  their  right  to  administer 
their  own  funds. 

Finally,  the  colonies  had  the  right  of  jurisdiction  over 
their  members — that  is  to  say,  that  any  Jew  might  be 
judged  according  to  the  Mosaic  law.  In  regard  to  these 
liberties  and  privileges,  we  shall  find  the  Eoman  Empire 
inexorable  whenever  there  is  question  of  public  order,  and 
chastise  the  Jews  pitilessly  in  Judaea  when  they  rebel, 
and  in  the  Dispersion  when,  under  the  name  of  Christians, 
they  became  criminals  at  common  law. 

We  have  briefly  shown  the  situation  of  the  Jews 
scattered  round  the  Mediterranean  about  the  beginning  of 
the  present  era.  We  have  seen  their  number,  the  extra- 
ordinary development  of  their  colonies,  their  organisation, 
and  their  privileges.  We  have  now  to  inquire  into  their 
moral,  social,  and  political  activity ;  and  that  will  con- 
clude our  study  of  Judaism  before  St.  Paul. 


§  4. 

The  Eoman  world  was  then  a  splendid  marvel  of  proud 
strength  and  serene  power.  Rome  covered  the  world  as 
if  with  its  spreading  hands  ;  like  long  fingers,  its  great 
stone  roads,  by  which  the  legions  and  the  prefects  came 
and  went,  as  the  blood  flows  in  the  veins  and  arteries, 
sent  out  its  implacable  will — a  will  confident  of  itself  and 
irresistible,  because  it  brought  peace,  organisation,  and 
justice  to  the  world. 

The  peace  it  brought  to  the  world  was  the  fruit  of  four 
centuries  of  unbroken  effort.  On  the  field  of  battle  as 
well  as  in  the  council,  by  the  totality  of  its  highest 
military  virtues  as  well  as  of  its  highest  civic  virtues,  its 
power  had  become  great  enough  among  other  peoples  to 
create  its  right.  It  made  one  vast  society  of  all  the 
nations  gathered  under  its  dominion;  the  wars  of  kingdom 
against  kingdom  dissppeared ;  it  was  felt  that  the  world 


THE  INVASION  285 

was,  like  a  harmonious  body,  about  to  move  according  to 
the  great  rhythm  of  a  central  will. 

For  the  last  time  the  world  saw  the  colossus  roar,  shake 
its  mane,  and  go  into  action.  That  began  at  Pharsalus, 
and  ended  at  Actium.  The  thunder  seemed  to  rend  the 
sky  and  overthrow  the  earth ;  the  lightning  flashed  across 
the  world,  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules  ; 
the  earth  shook.  Then  there  was  a  great  silence,  a 
serene  calm,  a  radiant  sun,  a  cloudless  sky  ;  it  was  the 
Roman  peace,  "  the  immeasurable  majesty  of  the  Roman 
peace." '  But  the  Roman  peace  was  an  armed  peace ; 
the  old  legions  remained  in  camp,  the  javelin  in  their 
hand,  the  shield  on  their  arm.  The  procurator  might 
display  the  gravity  of  his  toga  before  the  people  ;  behind 
the  feeble  escort  that  accompanied  him  was  the  shadow  of 
the  Eagles,  ever  ready  to  swoop. 

It  was  not  enough  for  Rome  to  bring  peace  to  the 
world  ;  it  brought  an  organised  peace.  The  Roman  was 
a  born  administrator  no  less  than  a  born  soldier.  He 
knew  how  to  keep  what  he  conquered.  Never  were  such 
profoundly  statesmanlike  qualities  developed  as  among 
this  nation  of  grave  men,  with  hard  mask,  calm  brow, 
severe  eyes,  and  positivist  spirit :  men  who  were  always 
victorious  and  always  pitiless. 

And  the  work  that  had  pacified  and  organised  the  world 
ended  in  giving  it  justice.  We  have  already  recognised 
a  Roman  creation  in  justice.  To  give  to  every  man  what 
belongs  to  him,  suu7n  cuique,  is  an  idea  that  was  born  at 
Rome.  Rome,  in  fact,  was  a  hierarchy.  Above  the 
countless  multitude  of  lower  beings,  fit  only  to  serve,^ 
Rome  towered,  a  pyramid  of  rock,  with  so  many  thousand 
citizens  at  its  base,  with  the  increasingly  luxurious  com- 
pany of  its  leaders,  and  with  the  Emperor,  the  great 
commander,  at  the  summit. 

There  were  no  castes  at  Rome  ;  positions  were  open  to 

'  Immensa  pacis  EomanEe  majestas. 
*  Servituti  nati,  Cicero,  De  Provinciis  Consularibus,  v. 


286  THE  INVASION 

all,  honours  and  wealth  accessible  to  all.  Foreigners 
might  become  citizens,  knights,  or  magistrates  ;  a 
toleration  that  afterwards  degenerated  into  abuse.  The 
legionaries  were  stationed  in  the  provinces.  Foreigners 
flocked  to  the  capital.  The  great  freedmen  whom  we 
find  among  the  Caesars,  at  the  head  of  the  hierarchy, 
were  bastards  of  Eoman  nobles  and  beautiful  slaves 
imported  from  all  parts  of  the  earth.  Christianity,  which 
did  not  abolish  slavery,  almost  re-established  castes.  The 
great  Roman  soul  knew  no  barriers  of  classes,  though  it 
knew  the  inequality  of  men.  The  Roman  legislators 
believed  that  every  man  had  his  place ;  that  there  is 
order  in  the  universe  ;  that  there  is  the  oak  and  there  is 
the  reed,  the  lion  and  the  beast  of  the  herd ;  and  that 
social  perfection  would  be  attained  if  every  man, 
occupying  the  place  that  suits  him,  prided  himself  on 
being  in  his  proper  situation,  his  proper  trade,  his  proper 
charge. 

Honour  is  the  law  of  the  few ;  but  the  simple  senti- 
ment of  professional  duty  is  capable  of  replacing  decaying 
religions  in  giving  the  necessary  morality  to  the  people. 
Rome  had  no  religion,  in  the  moral  sense  that  we  give 
to  the  word,  yet  never  did  virtue  flourish  more  in  any 
nation  than  that.  The  English  have  kept  the  ideal — the 
right  man  in  the  right  place.  Unhappy  the  man  who 
thinks  he  is  kept  from  his  class,  despises  his  superiors, 
and  accepts  not  the  post  that  life  has  entrusted  to  him. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  practice  of  common  virtues  is 
easy,  as  well  as  the  heroism  of  rare  and  great  deeds,  to 
any  man  who  takes  pride  merely  in  doing  his  profes- 
sional duty.  To  teach  that  to  our  children  it  would  be 
enough,  perhaps,  as  was  done  with  young  Romans,  to  give 
them  a  strong  military  education. 

Judaism  proclaimed  that  all  the  Jews  were  equal ; 
it  made  of  the  Jewish  people  a  people  apart,  a  privi- 
leged group,  a  caste.  The  Jews  had  no  military  education. 
Military  education  had  taught  the  Romans  the  inequality 


THE  INVASION  287 

of  men  and  the  accessibility  of  all  to  the  higher  offices — 
discipline,  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  the  fact 
that,  as  used  to  be  said  a  century  ago,  every  soldier  has  a 
marshal's  baton  in  his  knapsack.  Roman  justice,  S2iU7?i 
cuiqne,  must  be  defined  in  that  way.  If  equality  means 
the  possibility  of  all  to  mount  the  social  pyramid  by  their 
own  merit,  it  is  just ;  but  in  the  mind  of  the  mutinous 
slave  it  means  that  the  worker  of  the  last  hour  shall  have 
the  same  pay  as  he  who  began  in  the  morning.  The 
Romans  never  imagined  that  the  last  could  be  the  first, 
that  the  lowly  should  eat  the  bread  of  the  strong,  and 
that  life  was  a  feast  at  which  every  comer  had  the  right 
to  an  equal  seat.  That  is  why  Tacitus  declared,  in 
speaking  of  the  Jews :  "  What  is  sacred  to  us  is  held  in 
horror  by  them  ;  what  to  us  is  infamous  is  permitted  to 
them." ' 

If  we  wish  to  understand  the  part  that  the  Jews  played 
in  the  great  concert  of  European  peace — their  moral, 
social,  and  political  attitude — we  must  first  consult  the 
Latin  contemporaries.  There  is  no  variation  in  the  verdict 
of  the  Latin  writers  on  the  Jews  ;  and  this  consensus  of 
superior  men,  of  whom  two  at  least,  Juvenal  and  Tacitus, 
were  great  and  good  men  as  well  as  men  of  genius,  is  not 
a  thing  to  disregard.  Christian  prejudice  has  endeavoured 
to  throw  suspicion  on  the  severity  of  their  judgment. 
Kenan,  in  his  Origins  of  Christianity,  which  has  a 
Christian  bias,  never  hesitates  between  some  miserable 
story  from  "  The  Acts  of  the  Martyrs  "  and  Tacitus ;  in 
his  opinion  Tacitus  is  always  wrong.  The  independent 
historian,  on  the  other  hand,  regards  the  authority  of 
Tacitus  as  very  great,  and  does  not  understand  how  his 
judgment  may  be  accepted  in  regard  to  the  Germans  and 
not  accepted  in  regard  to  the  Jews — unless  it  be  that  the 
Christian  religion,  being  a  daughter  of  the  Jewish  religion, 
owes  it  some  respect. 

*  Tacitus,  Histories,  v.  4. 


288  THE  INVASION 

In  the  speech  which  we  have  quoted,  Cicero,  drawing 
up  an  indictment  of  Judaism,  charges  their  rehgion  with 
"  shuddering  at  the  splendour  of  the  empire,  the  gravity 
of  the  Roman  name,  and  the  ancient  institutions  of  the 
city." 

Then  Horace  speaks  several  times  of  the  Jews,  some- 
times representing  them  as  a  troop  of  fanatical  prosely- 
tisers,  forcing  people  to  enter  their  ranks,*  sometimes 
laughing  at  their  superstitions  and  the  Sabbath.^ 

Persius  ridicules  the  way  in  which  the  wretched  Jews 
celebrate  the  Sabbath/ 

Juvenal  describes  the  Jewish  beggars  with  no  other 
furniture  than  a  basket  and  some  hay,^  and  the  Jewesses 
hawking  about  cheap  predictions.'  In  this  passage  he 
gathers  up  all  the  reproaches  that  humanity  addresses  to 
Judaism — contempt  of  the  laws  of  Rome,  hatred  of  the 
pagans,  and  the  refusal  to  take  part  in  social  duties : — 

The  son  of  a  superstitious  observer  of  the  Sabbath 
worships  only  the  power  of  the  clouds  and  the  heavens ; 
after  the  example  of  his  father,  he  has  not  less  horror 
of  the  flesh  of  a  pig  than  of  human  flesh,  and  he  is 
circumcised.  Educated  in  a  contempt  for  Eoman  laws, 
he  neither  studies,  observes,  nor  reveres  any  but  the 
Judaic  law  and  all  that  Moses  transmits  to  his  followers 
in  his  mysterious  book.  He  would  not  tell  the  way  to  a 
traveller  who  did  not  belong  to  his  sect ;  he  would  not 
show  the  spring  to  one  who  was  not  circumcised.  And 
all  this  because  his  father  idled  on  the  seventh  day  of  each 
week,  and  took  no  part  in  life's  duties.^ 

Suetonius  attributes  to  Augustus  a  joke  about  the 
Sabbath.^  Seneca  includes  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath 
among  the  superstitions  which  he  advises  his  reader  to 
avoid.* 

Martial  vents  his  pornographic  humour  on  the  Jews;^ 

'  Horace,  Satires,  i.  4.  ^  Horace,  Satires,  i.  5  and  i.  9. 

'  Persius,  Satires,  v.  *  Juvenal,  iii.  13-16. 

^  Juvenal,  vi.  343  and  547.  ^  Juvenal,  xiv.  87-104. 

'  Snetonius,  Augustus,  76.  **  Seneca,  Letter  toLucilius,  xcv. 

9  Martial,  vii.  30,  35,  and  55. 


THE  INVASION  289 

in  another  place  he  describes  the  Jew  "  trained  by  his 
mother  to  beg  "  ;'  and  again  he  refers  to  the  fetidness  of 
the  inhabitants  of  the  ghetto,  and,  among  the  worst 
smells  he  can  recall,  such  as  "  the  smell  of  lagoons  from 
which  the  sea  has  withdrawn,  the  thick  miasma  that 
rises  from  the  marshes  of  Albula,  the  bad  air  of  a  pond  in 
which  there  has  been  sea-water,  the  emanations  of  a 
he-goat  paying  attention  to  the  female,  or  the  exhalations 
of  the  great-coat  of  a  veteran  soldier  overcome  by  fatigue," 
he  puts  "  the  breath  of  the  observers  of  the  Sabbath."^ 

We  may  recall  that  Seneca  called  the  Jews  "  the  most 
rascally  nation  of  all,"  in  relating  that  they  "  had  done  so 
well  that  their  practices  were  now  established  all  over  the 
earth."' 

Lastly,  there  is  the  well-known  phrase  of  Tacitus  in 
which,  speaking  of  the  Christians  as  identified  with  the 
Jews,  he  says  they  are  "  convicted  of  hatred  of  the  human 
race."^  Apologists  refer  exultantly  to  certain  errors  of 
Tacitus  in  regard  to  Jewish  history  and  laws  ;  but  while 
Tacitus  may  have  been  mistaken  on  certain  points  of  the 
ancient  history  and  legislation  (restricted  in  his  time)  of 
the  small  Palestinian  people,  he  was  better  informed  as  to 
the  morals  of  the  Jews  at  Kome,  his  contemporaries.  We 
have  quoted  his  verdict : — 

All  that  is  sacred  to  us  is  held  in  horror  by  them ;  all 
that  is  infamous  to  us  is  permitted  to  them.* 

He  speaks  of  their  "  sinister,  fetid  "  institutions,  "  which 
have  made  way  by  their  perversity."  He  speaks  again  of 
their  hatred  of  other  men,  their  stubborn  separatism.  A 
little  later  their  customs  are  "absurd  and  sordid";^  in 
another  place  they  are  "an  execrable  people."^  If  Tacitus 
had  read  the  apocalypse  of  St.  John,  with  its  cries  of  rage 
against  Kome,  and  its  calls  for  fire,  he  would  not  have 

'  Martial,  xii.  57.  ^  Martial,  iv.  4. 

*  Seneca,  quoted  by  St.  Augustine,  De  Civitate  Dei,  vi.  10. 

*  Tacitus,  Histories,  v.  4.     *  Tacitus,  Histories,  v.  4. 

*  TacHms,  Histories,  V.  5.     ''  Teterrimamgentem;'Iajcitns,Histories,v.8. 

U 


290  THE  INVASION 

doubted  that  among  men  who  were  capable  of  writing 
such  books  there  were  some  quite  capable — and  more 
likely  than  Nero — of  setting  fire  to  the  city. 

Let  us  do  justice  to  the  extraordinarily  powerful 
qualities  of  the  Jewish  people,  but  we  need  not  be 
surprised  at  the  horror  with  which  Romans  of  the 
early  centuries  regarded  the  ghetto.  Its  unconquerable 
nationalism  has  made  the  Jewish  people  one  of  the 
greatest  in  the  world ;  but  we  can  quite  understand  that 
at  the  time  of  the  Dispersion  a  Tacitus  or  a  Juvenal 
could  not  look  upon  it  with  anything  but  contempt  and 
indignation. 

Let  us  picture  to  ourselves  these  groups,  who  have 
come  from  Palestine,  in  the  most  desolate  suburbs  of  the 
large  towns,  in  obscure  districts  under  the  shadow  of 
slaughter-houses,  at  the  outfalls  of  sewers,  in  all  sorts  of 
corners  shunned  by  other  people,  corners  where  houses 
were  few,  and  there  were  no  trees,  water,  or  clear  sky. 
Let  us  recollect  their  acceptance  of  vile  occupations,  of 
blows,  beggary,  dirt,  and  humiliations.  The  Jew  who 
emigrated  to  the  West  with  his  Syriac,  Tyrian,  and 
Egyptian  neighbours,  was  not  like  them  in  the  depths  of 
his  soul.  While  the  poor  Tyrian  lived  out  his  poor  life 
in  humble  servitude,  while  the  Egyptian  was  resigned, 
while  all  these  orientals  rejoiced  when  they  gained  a  few 
coins  and  died  young  and  without  envy,  the  Jew  had 
grown  up  with  the  idea  that  he  was  suffering,  but  would 
be  avenged  ;  that  he  was  humbled,  but  his  masters  would 
be  punished  ;  and  his  soul  was  sharpened  on  hatred  and 
hope.  Under  the  rags  of  the  miserable  Jew  the  Roman 
felt  a  heart  beating  with  hatred. 

We  saw  that  Judaism  in  Judaea  was  divided  between 
the  two  schools  of  Hillel  and  Shammai,  the  school  of 
patience  and  subterraneous  war,  and  the  school  of  revolt 
and  open  war.  While  the  disciples  of  Shammai,  getting 
the  upper  hand  at  Jerusalem,  lead  the  holy  city  to 
destruction,  the  men   of  the  Dispersion   remain  faithful 


THE  INVASION  291 

disciples  of  Hillel.  None  of  the  censures  of  Tacitus  or 
Juvenal  should  astonish  any  man  who  understands  the 
book  of  psalms  : — 

I  am  wasted  in  groaning 

I  am  a  rejected  vessel 

My  wounds  are  fetid 

I  am  sated  with  contempt 

Then  :— 

Avenge  us,  Jahveh,  god  of  vengeance 

Let  me  bathe  my  feet  in  their  blood 

Eender  unto  them  their  outrage  sevenfold  in  their 
bosom 

Happy  he  who  shall  seize  their  little  children,  and  dash 
them  against  the  rock 

Else,  judge  of  the  earth break  their  teeth  in  their 

mouths let  me  rejoice  to  see  my  vengeance ' 

It  is  a  fierce  expectation  of  vengeance,  but  there  is  no 
preparation  for  revolt,  no  organising  of  war,  no  sharpen- 
ing of  weapons.  The  Jew  of  the  Dispersion  is  not  minded 
to  resist ;  he  does  not  think  of  rising ;  no  seditious  idea 
has  ever  passed  through  the  ghetto.  He  bends ;  his 
spine  is  appallingly  supple  ;  the  stick  plays  merrily  on  it. 
He  is  proud,  perhaps,  but  certainly  not  haughty.  He 
expects  victory  of  his  god,  not  of  himself.  His  tremen- 
dous strength  lies  in  his  confidence  that  his  god  will  give 
him  this  victory. 

He  watches  and  waits,  almost  with  an  air  of  resignation. 
All  the  employments  that  the  Latins  disdain  are  his.  He 
obeys  miserably ;  he  takes  up  dirty  offices  ;  he  prostitutes 
his  girls  and  boys.  He  humbles  himself  the  more  as  he 
is  so  certain  that  he  will  be  avenged.  There  is  nothing 
in  him  of  the  shudder  of  the  slave  who  is  ready  to  rebel, 
of  the  generous  anger  that  had  shook  the  heart  of  a 
Spartacus  when  he  at  last  brandished  the  sword  that 
made  Kome  tremble,  and  that  his  arm  was  worthy  to 
brandish.     The  Jews  of  Jerusalem  had  in  the   end  the 

*  Psalms,  passim.     See  above,  p.  211. 


292  THE  INVASION 

soul  of  Spartacus ;  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion  remained 
the  sombre  dreamers  of  the  apocalypses. 

The  Jew  of  the  Dispersion,  who  muttered  raca  in  a 
low  voice  to  the  great  lords  of  Eome,  said  to  them  aloud : 
Acloni.  The  spirit  of  hatred  and  rancour  which  his  envy 
spread  through  the  world  was  a  hatred  without  greatness, 
and  a  vile  rancour.  He  lived,  and  sustained  himself  and 
encouraged  others  with  the  words  :  "  Patience,  you  will  be 
avenged." 

The  Hebrew  books  do  not  exhort  to  action  ;  they  can 
only  curse  and  pray.  Jahveh  will  smite  the  rich,  because 
they  are  rich.  Jahveh  -will  destroy  splendour,  because 
it  is  splendid.  Jahveh  will  burn  what  is  beautiful. 
Jahveh  wishes  all  strength,  power,  and  joy  suppressed  ; 
for  the  Jew  is  weak,  ugly,  and  sad.  But  the  miracle  of 
the  Jewish  soul  was  that  the  cry  of  hatred  was  accom- 
panied by  the  cry  of  hope — or,  rather,  of  certainty.  And 
this  hope  was  the  more  certain  because,  to  realise  their 
dream  of  imperialism,  these  sublime  wretches  counted, 
not  on  themselves,  but  on  a  god. 

There  is  nothing  more  extraordinary  than  the  mixture 
of  profound  humility  and  unconquerable  pride  that  was 
characteristic  of  the  Jewish  soul.  Pride,  on  the  one 
hand,  because  of  the  certainty  that  he  will  one  day  be 
master  of  the  world  ;  humility,  because  he  does  not  trust 
his  own  strength,  but  that  of  another,  Jahveh.  It  recalls 
the  pride  of  the  lackey,  who  can  do  nothing  for  himself, 
but  his  master  is  very  strong.  This  pride  in  humility 
explains  the  work  of  quiet  and  implacable  propaganda 
carried  on  by  Judaism  throughout  the  lower  strata  of  the 
Roman  world. 

The  hatred  and  hope  of  the  Jew  were  diffused  about 
him.  The  obstinate  Jew  was  a.  figure  in  the  mixed  troop 
of  the  lowly  of  all  nations  who  swarmed  by  the  wayside. 
The  others  noticed  his  reticence,  and  questioned  him ; 
and  at  times  his  pride  disclosed  the  Messianic  dream  that 
exalted   him.      Gradually   the  \  troop    marvelled    at   the 


THE  INVASION  293 

promises  made  to  the  Jews  by  their  god.  The  years 
went  by,  and  the  news  spread.  We  can  imagine  the 
astonishment,  the  admiration,  of  these  poor  folk  when 
they  suddenly  heard  speak  of  revenge  !  The  revenge,  it 
seemed,  was  for  the  Jews  only,  not  for  the  others  ;  but, 
all  the  same,  it  was  something  to  know  that  the  very 
lowest  of  these  lowly  folk  expected  revenge.  The  Jew 
began  to  figure  among  the  others  as  a  man  with  a  secret, 
a  man  who  whispers  in  the  shade.  And  presently  they 
were  saying  that  perhaps  it  would  be  possible  to  have 
a  share  in  the  inheritance  promised  to  the  Jews,  and 
would  be  as  well  to  join  in  their  cult. 

Thus  what  were  called  Judaisers  began  to  increase. 
Foreigners  converted,  or  atiiliated,  to  Judaism,  the 
Judaisers,  whom  we  have  already  found  grouped  about 
the  Jewish  colonies,  were  not  circumcised  and  eat  non- 
ritual  meats ;  but  they  knew  the  Jewish  books  in  the 
Septuagint  translation,  listened  to  ,  the  discourses  of  the 
Jews,  and  frequented  the  synagogues. 

Now  the  good  news  spread  through  the  social  depths. 
The  spirit  of  rancour  grew.  There  was  talk  of  a  possible 
change,  and  quoting  of  express  words  ;  the  god  of  the 
Jews  had  promised.  Nothing  of  the  kind  had  been  said 
in  the  name  of  the  other  gods  ;  neither  the  Greek,  nor 
Egyptian,  nor  oriental  gods  had  promised  any  future  to 
their  peoples.  But  the  god  of  the  Jews  had  made  a 
formal  engagement,  and  they  quoted  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
and  then  the  latest  of  the  prophets,  the  most  precise  in 
regard  to  the  promise,  Daniel. 

From  the  earliest  prophets  the  Jews  had  associated 
with  the  idea  of  victory  over  their  enemies  that  of  revenge 
of  the  lowly  over  the  powerful.  They  now  spoke  in  low 
tones  of  the  incalculable  wealth  of  the  patricians  ;  they 
cursed  their  pleasures  and  luxury,  and  exalted  austerity 
out  of  hatred  of  the  rich. 

The  less  coarse  minds  had  other  arguments.  Like 
certain  anarchists  of  our  time,  they  mingled  philosophic 


294  THE  INVASION 

considerations  with  their  appeal  to  passion.  It  was  easy 
for  them  to  ridicule  the  externality  of  an  official  religion 
that  had  become  purely  symbolical,  and  to  exalt  the 
mysterious  religion  which  Judaism  was.  Jahveh  had  but 
one  temple,  at  Jerusalem,  and  no  statue ;  for  the  Jews 
scattered  over  the  West  he  was  the  mysterious  god 
without  temple  or  altar. 

At  times  the  whispers  of  the  Jews  were  heard  among 
the  educated  classes ;  not  infrequently  free  men  and 
women — women  especially — lent  an  ear  to  them.  In  the 
ages  of  the  Caesars  Judaism  had  followers  even  among 
the  patricians,  so  true  it  is  that  the  superior  classes  are 
never  without  individuals  who  are  eager  to  descend 
again. 

This  despised  crowd  of  obscure  beings  who  swarmed 
in  the  depths  of  the  Empire  was  animated  with  the  most 
ardent  and  sombre  proselytism.  These  miserable  people 
were  priests. 

"  Ye  shall  be  for  me  a  kingdom  of  priests  and  a  holy 
people,"  the  Law  had  said. 

In  order  to  send  them  to  preach  the  reign  of  the  lowly 
and  the  revenge  of  the  weak,  Jahveh  had  said  to  them  : — 

"  Ye  shall  all  be  priests." 

"Ye  shall  all  be  nobles,"  their  genius  had  said  to  the 
Romans. 

Under  Augustus  and  Tiberius  the  Empire  spread  over 
the  surface  of  the  world ;  it  spread  in  strength  and  beauty 
above  the  sullen  hatred  that  rose  toward  it  from  all  the 
lower  depths. 

One  day,  in  the  year  19  of  the  present  era,  Tiberius, 
though  liberal,  like  all  the  Caesars,  was  alarmed  at  the 
growing  invasion.  He  forbade  at  Rome  the  ceremonies 
of  oriental  cults,  especially  Egyptian  and  Jewish  rites,  and 
he  ordered  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  from  Italy.  Judaism 
was  forbidden  at  Rome  under  pain  of  perpetual  slavery. 
The  Roman  Empire  had  divined  its  enemy. 

It  was  what  we  might  call  the  first  of  the  persecutions; 


THE  INVASION  295 

the  second,  thirty  years  afterward,  under  Claudius,  leads 
us  to  the  appearance  of  Christianity. 

The  Jews  had  bent  their  heads  to  the  storm ;  they  had 
dissimulated,  retired  below  ground,  and  waited.  But 
gradually  they  made  their  appearance  again  on  all 
sides,  like  a  rumbling  that  seemed  to  have  ceased  and 
begins  again  under  one's  feet.  They  had  to  begin  over 
again.  The  Jewish  invasion  received  a  fresh  impetus — 
at  Eome,  Alexandria,  in  Greece,  and  in  Asia. 

At  this  time  a  tempest  of  heroic  and  furious  madness 
swept  over  Jerusalem  and  Judaea.  Twenty  partial  revolts 
formed  a  prelude  to  the  great  insurrection  of  the  year  66. 
The  Jews  of  Jerusalem  and  Judaea,  who  were  going  to 
seek  with  the  sword  the  fulfilment  of  their  hopes,  were 
abandoning  the  tradition  of  the  prophets,  the  psalms,  and 
the  apocalypses.  They  became  heroes ;  for  no  heroism 
was  ever  greater  than  that  of  the  men  who  defended 
Jerusalem  against  Titus.  But  by  that  very  fact  they 
were  repudiating  the  fundamental  dogma  of  Judaism, 
which  is  the  abandonment  of  oneself  in  the  hands  of  the 
supernatural.  They  forgot  that  the  apocalypses,  the 
psalms,  and  the  prophets  had  preached  that  they  must 
expect  nothing  of  their  own  efforts,  but  look  for  every- 
thing from  Jahveh. 

"  Cursed  be  the  man  that  trusteth  in  man,"  Jere- 
miah had  said.  "  Blessed  is  the  man  that  trusteth  in 
Jahveh."  ^ 

"  For  I  will  not  trust  in  my  bow,"  said  the  Psalms, 

"  neither  shall  my  sword  save  me Jahveh  is  my  hope, 

my  strength,  and  my  help."'^ 

"And  in  those  days,"  says  Daniel,  "  the  god  of  heaven 
shall  set  up  an  empire,  which  shall  never  be  destroyed  ; 
with  his  hand  he  shall  break  in  pieces  and  consume  all  the 
other  empires."  * 

Jewish  tradition  is  with  Hillel  against  Shammai ;  it  is 
in  the  Dispersion.     There  the  oppressed  flocks  make  no 

^  Jeremiah  xvii.  5  and  7.  ^  Psalms  xliv.  6,  and.  passiyn. 

^  Daniel  ii.  44. 


296  THE  INVASION 

struggle.  They  accept  everything,  or  feign  to  accept 
everything  ;  and  they  await  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  in 
the  opening  heavens,  with  his  company  of  Kerubim,  to 
fulfil  the  promise. 

How  long  would  Jewish  perseverance  have  lasted? 
How  long  would  Jewish  imperialism  have  needed  to  com- 
plete its  conquest  of  the  depths  of  the  Roman  world  ? 
How  long  would  the  outcasts  of  the  Roman  world  have 
been  able  to  hope  for  the  coming  of  the  day  of  Jahveh  ? 

Then  through  the  Empire  the  news  suddenly  spread 
that  the  day  of  deliverance  was  at  hand,  and  that,  mar- 
vellous to  relate,  not  only  the  Jews,  but  the  Judaisers  and 
all  the  lowly  who  would  come  to  them,  would  be  invited 
to  take  their  place  in  the  kingdom  of  vengeance. 

This  novelty  was  taught  by  a  Jew  of  Tarsus,  in  Syria, 
a  tent-maker  by  trade,  Shaoul  or  Saul,  and  afterwards 
Paul,  by  name. 


APPENDICES 


[We  did  not  think  it  advisable  to  interrupt  our  study  by  the  discussion 
of  details,  of  which  each  would  require  careful  study.  In  these  Appendices 
we  shall  deal  only  with  certain  points  that  are  especially  worthy  of 
attention.] 

I. 

"  Israel  "  (p.  5). — The  name  Israel  is  found,  as  we  said, 
on  an  Egyptian  monument  of  the  thirteenth  century,  a  stele 
raised  by  the  Pharaoh  Menephtah,  who  reigned  from  1225  to 
1215.  Apart  from  this  monument,  and  after  this  date, 
Egyptology  knows  nothing  of  it.  Assyriology  is  entirely 
ignorant  of  it.  Among  the  Palestinian  monuments  there  is 
only  the  stele  of  Mesa  that  uses  it ;  but,  without  discussing 
the  authenticity  of  the  stele,  we  may  observe  that  the  name 
Israel  is  used  by  it  in  a  solemn  and  archaic  sense.  In  much 
the  same  way  the  Emperor  William  might  have  said  in  1871  : 
"  We  have  conquered  Gaul." 

In  the  same  way  the  name  Sennaar  (Shinear)  has  a  precise 
geographical  significance  in  the  El  Amarna  tablets,  but  the 
Biblical  period  has  only  a  vague  and  poetic  meaning. 

This  silence  of  archaeological  documents  has  led  us,  among 
other  things,  to  believe  that,  though  the  name  Israel  stood  for 
a  reality  in  the  age  of  the  tribes,  and,  no  doubt,  even  in  the 
Davidic  period,  it  no  longer  did  so  in  the  time  of  the  two 
kingdoms  ;  and  that  it  was  revived  and  put  forward  by  the 
Esdras  school  with  an  imperialist  aim,  as  we  have  submitted 
in  the  first  part  of  the  work,  ch.  iii.,  1. 

However  that  may  be,  we  refrain  from  giving  this  name  to 
the  kingdoms  of  Ephraim  and  Judah.  There  is  a  good  deal 
of  confusion  in  this  respect  in  the  Bible  and  in  historians  ; 
they  give  the  name  Israel,  on  the  one  hand,  to  the  kingdoms 
of  Ephraim  and  Judah  collectively,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  the  kingdom  of  Ephraim  separately  from  the  kingdom  of 

297 


298  APPENDICES 

Judah.  It  is  in  every  respect  better  to  adopt  the  name 
Ephraim  for  the  northern  kingdom. 

We  reserve  the  name  Israel  to  the  two  historical  accepta- 
tions of  the  word  :  in  the  first,  it  designates  "  a  certain  number 
of  tribes  settled  before  the  year  1000  in  southern  Syria  ";  in 
the  second,  it  designates,  from  the  fifth  century  onward,  a 
conception  of  "Jerusalem  politics." 

As  to  the  word  "  Hebrew,"  it  is  a  vague  term,  applying 
sometimes  in  the  Bible  to  all  the  descendants  of  Abraham — all 
the  Palestinians,  that  is  to  say — and  sometimes  restricted  to 
the  descendants  of  Jacob,  or  the  Israelites.  As  the  word  has 
not  assumed  any  theoretical  meaning  analogous  to  that  of  the 
word  Israel,  we  find  it  possible  to  use  it,  taking  it  in  the  second 
of  its  two  meanings.  We  therefore  call  the  kingdoms  of 
Ephraim  and  Judah  "  Hebrew  kingdoms,"  though  the  word  is 
not  found  in  Assyrian  or  Egyptian  inscriptions  contempor- 
aneous with  the  two  kingdoms. 

II. 

The  Samaritan  Pentateuch  (p.  44). — As  is  well  known, 
the  Samaritan  cult  uses  a  special  edition  of  the  Pentateuch, 
which  is  called  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch.  The  date  of  it  is 
disputed.  We  regard  it  as  later  than  the  Machabaean  period. 
The  Machabees  alone,  as  a"matter  of  fact,  imposed  Jewish  rule, 
and,  consequently,  the  Jewish  cult,  on  Samaria.  After  them 
Samaria  recovered  a  kind  of  independence,  and  the  Samaritan 
cult  became  a  schism  of  Judaism.  The  priests  of  Samaria 
would  then  prepare  the  edition  of  the  books  of  Moses  that 
suited  them. 

III. 

Our  "Imperialist"  Theory  of  the  Composition  of 
THE  Mosaic  Books  (p.  52). — Our  theory  is  the  only  one  to 
solve  what  M.  Isidore  L6vy,  in  his  learned  and  acute  lectures 
at  the  Ecole  des  Hautes-Etudes,  called  the  riddle  of  the  Bible. 
If  the  Hexateuch  was  composed  in  Judah  at  a  time  when  the 
kingdom  of  Ephraim  had  just  been  destroyed,  after  two 
centuries  of  hostility  (let  us  say,  rather,  at  a  time  when  the 
State  of  Samaria  was  the  chief  enemy),  how  can  we  understand 
the  Jerusalem  writers  incorporating  in  their  work  the  legends 


APPENDICES  299 

of  the  north,  and  even  giving  to  Joseph,  the  Ephraimitic  hero, 
so  important  a  part  ? 

It  seems  to  us  that  only  one  reply  can  he  made.  The 
writers  of  Jerusalem  annexed  the  traditions  of  peoples  which 
they  knew  to  have  once  been  sister-peoples,  in  order  that  one 
day  they  might  annex  the  peoples  themselves. 

Why  did  they  not  do  the  same  in  regard  to  the  rich  regions 
of  the  West  ?  Not  being  conscious  of  any  relationship  with 
them,  they  used  other  means  ;  but  their  imperialism  is  not  less 
clearly  shown  in  regard  to  them,  and  the  Bible  is  full  of  their 
pretensions  over  all  countries  as  far  as  the  sea. 

To  the  critics  who  hold  that  the  Jerusalemites  could  not 
glorify  enemies  or  rivals,  we  have  only  to  quote  the  extra- 
ordinary passage  in  Chronicles  (v.  1-2) — a  Jerusalemitic  work, 
if  ever  there  was  one,  as  no  one  denies — which  exalts  Joseph 
at  the  expense  of  Judah. 

IV. 

The  "  Documents"  (p.  58). — Critics  have  given  the  follow- 
ing names  to  the  different  documents  that  compose  the  Mosaic 
books : — 

Jehovic  and  Elohic,  for  the  most  ancient ; 

Deuteronomic,  for  the  following  ; 

Levitic  or  Sacerdotal,  for  the  latest. 
These  names  have  been  well  chosen.     To  apply  them  to  the 
periods   in   which    the   different    parts    of    the    books  were 
composed,  it  is  enough  to  give  them  their  full  meaning. 

The  Jehovic  and  Elohic  period  is  that  in  which  the  work  of 
the  priest-writers  consists  in  concentrating  the  Jewish  soul 
about  Jahveh,  the  national  god ;  Jehovic,  because  it  was 
formerly  usual  to  say  Jehovah  instead  of  Jahveh ;  Elohic, 
because  in  Hebrew  god  is  elohim. 

The  Deuteronomic  period  is  that  in  which  the  laws  of 
Deuteronomy  (the  second  series  of  laws)  are  promulgated. 

The  Levitic  or  Sacerdotal  period  corresponds  to  the  zenith 
of  the  Levitical  priesthood. 

We  may  add  that  it  is  customary  to  distinguish  between 
the  Jehovist  and  Elohist  in  the  last  period.  The  range  of  this 
study  will  not  allow  us  to  go  into  these  details.  We  may 
regard  the  Jehovist  and  Elohist  as  two  schools,  or  two  shades 
of  the  same  frame  of  mind. 


300  APPENDICES 

V. 

Simeon  the  Just  (p.  98). — The  reasons  that  have  led  some 
to  dispute  the  testimony  of  Josephus,  and  put  back  for  a  century 
the  pontificate  of  Simeon  the  Just,  do  not  seem  to  us  valid. 
Josephus  is  explicit ;  and  as  to  the  Siracid,  he  gives  one  the 
impression  of  speaking  of  the  great  Simeon,  not  as  a  contem- 
porary, as  Eenan  thought,  but  as  a  star  shining  above  the 
temple  in  the  remote  past.  Historical  probabilities  agree ; 
Simeon  the  Just,  so  plausible  at  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century,  seems  to  be  impossible,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second, 
on  the  eve  of  the  Machabaean  period. 

VI. 

The  Non-existence  op  the  Prophets  before  the 
Christian  Era  (p.  119). — The  belief  in  the  historical  reality 
of  the  prophets — that  is  to  say,  of  characters  playing  the  part  of 
prophets  in  ancient  Judah — is  the  great  blunder,  not  only  of 
classical  exegesis,  but  even  of  independent  commentators. 

The  most  liberal  Protestant  students,  no  less  than  the 
Eabbinical  tradition,  hold  that  the  prophets  were  semi- 
political,  semi-religious  characters  (raised  up  by  God,  the 
orthodox  go  on  to  say),  a  sort  of  tribunes  or  religious  reformers, 
who,  from  the  time  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  kingdoms  down  to 
Esdras,  preached  to  the  people,  and  whose  discourses  were  pre- 
served for  us  by  the  pious  care  of  the  synagogues. 

M.  Maurice  Vernes  has  proved  that  the  books  of  the 
prophets  (pseudepigraphic,  like  almost  all  the  books  of  the 
Bible)  are  the  works  of  writers  who  were  later,  not  only  than 
the  Eestoration,  but  than  Esdras.  He  concluded  that  pro- 
phetism  was  an  institution  of  the  fourth  and  third  centuries ; 
and  he  defined  the  prophets  as  "  men  clothed  with  a  sacred 
character,  exercising  the  ministry  of  inspired  speech  in  the 
precincts  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem."  ^  Hence  M.  Vernes 
only  departs  from  tradition  in  placing  in  the  fourth  and  third 
centuries  an  institution  which  tradition  referred  to  the  period 
from  the  eighth  to  the  fifth  century.  The  Protestant  exegesis 
offers  a  wrong  but  conceivable  hypothesis  when  it  represents 

'  Du  Pritendu  Polythiisme  des  Hibreux,  vol.  ii.,  p.  399. 


APPENDICES  301 

the  development  of  the  sacerdotal  institutions  as  later  than 
prophetism ;  while  the  hypothesis  of  prophetic  institutions  as 
contemporary  with  the  great  sacerdotal  development  puts  M. 
Vernes  in  great  difficulties. 

Not  content  with  taking  seriously  the  reality  of  the  prophets, 
commentators  supposed  that  there  were  prophetic  institutions 
analogous  to  the  sacerdotal  institutions,  a  body  of  prophets 
parallel  to  the  clergy,  and  prophetic  schools  set  up  ;  and  they 
endeavour  to  draw  up  the  history  of  an  imaginary  institution. 

The  more  audacious  supposed  that  the  literary  type  of  the 
prophets  was  the  idealisation,  not  of  the  wandering  wizards 
that  the  men  of  god  really  were,  but  of  professional  sooth- 
sayer's, attached  to  the  temple.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  find 
these  regular  bodies  of  diviners  everywhere  in  antiquity — in 
Egypt  and  Babylon,  in  Greece  and  Eome.  But — and  this  is 
one  of  the  distinctive  features  of  Judaism — the  only  divina- 
tion practised  in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  was  that  of  the 
priests  ;  nowhere  is  there  a  single  mention  in  the  Bible  of 
organised  diviners  exercising  an  official  function.  Judaism  had 
no  divination  except  that  of  the  priests,  at  the  head  of  the 
social  hierarchy,  and  that  of  the  miserable  popular  men  of  god 
at  the  bottom. 

But  how  can  critics  to  whom  the  Bible  is  not  only  a  sacred 
book,  but  an  historical  book,  admit  any  doubt  as  to  the  reality 
of  these  characters  ?  If  the  romances  of  the  Eound  Table  had 
had  the  good  fortune  to  found  a  religion,  their  heroes  would 
have  become  historical  characters. 

The  thesis  of  the  non-existence  of  the  prophets  until  the 
Christian  era  can  only  be  developed  in  an  exegetical  work.  I 
would,  however,  call  the  attention  of  my  readers  to  the 
extraordinary  silence  of  the  Jewish  legislation  in  regard  to 
prophetism  as  an  established  institution.  The  Hexateuch  is 
the  collection  of  Judaic  institutions.  It  contains  everything  : 
political  laws,  civil  laws,  moral  laws,  religious  laws,  ecclesias- 
tical laws,  and  ritual  laws.  The  Hexateuch  is  not  the  work 
of  one  period,  but  of  centuries ;  it  embraces  the  whole  of 
classic  Jewish  history.  Now,  though  the  word  prophet  is 
found  in  it  here  and  there,  there  is  not  a  trace  of  any  regu- 
lation that  might  apply  to  a  prophetic  institution,  in  spite 
of    the  thousand   and   one    laws   concerning   the   priesthood. 


302  APPENDICES 

There  is,  moreover,  never  question  in  it  of  prophetism  as  an 
institution.  Of  such  a  ministry  as  that  of  a  Samuel,  an 
Elijah,  a  Jeremiah,  or  an  Ezekiel  there  is  no  trace  whatever  in 
the  Hexateuch,  the  work  that  contains  the  whole  of  Judaism, 
Why  this  silence  ?  Because  prophetism  was  merely  a  literary 
fiction  ;  because  in  reality  there  w^as  no  such  a  thing  as 
prophetism. 

Further,  the  word  prophet  is  used  in  the  Hexateuch  in  a 
different  sense  from  that  of  the  historical  books.  In  the  Hexa- 
teuch the  nam  e  of  prophet  is  given  to  leaders  like  Abraham 
and  Moses  or  priests  like  Aaron ;  the  word  having  found 
favour,  the  writers  of  the  Hexateuch  were  bound  to  use  it ; 
but  a  prophet  such  as  Abraham,  Moses,  or  Aaron  is  a  very 
different  thing  from  a  prophet  like  Samuel,  Elijah,  Jeremiah, 
or  Ezekiel. 

I  may  add  that  the  early  historical  books  {Judges,  Samuel, 
and  Kings),  as  well  as  the  later  historical  books  {Chronicles, 
Esdras,  and  Nehemiah),  never  present  the  prophets  in  any 
other  light  than  as  dogmatic  admonishers,  and  never  give  the 
impression  of  playing  an  historical  part,  or  of  the  establish- 
ment of  a  body  with  any  function  whatever.  The  prophetic 
books  themselves,  when  we  examine  them  closely,  lead  to  the 
same  conclusion.  As  to  the  hagiographers,  everybody  knows 
how  little  there  is  question  of  prophets  in  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  first  book  of  the  Machahees  furnishes 
direct  arguments  against  the  reality  of  prophetism,  by  showing 
that  at  the  time  when  it  was  written,  not  only  were  there  no 
prophets,  but  there  had  been  none  for  a  long  time.^ 

VII. 

Weee  the  GALlLiEANS  JEWS?  (p.  260). — The  historian 
Flavins  Josephus,  who  never  fails  to  oppose  the  Jews  to  the 
Samaritans,  assimilates  the  "Jews  of  Galilee"  to  the  "Jews 
of  Judaea";  see  especially  his  Jewish  Antiquities,  xx.  5,  and 
Jewish  War,  ii.  21.  He  speaks  constantly  of  the  Galilaean 
Judas  the  Gaulonite  as  a  Jew.  The  thesis  that  the  Galilaeans 
were  not  Jews  rests  on  a  passage  in  the  first  book  of  the 
Machahees  (v.  23),  in  which  it  is  said  that  Judas  Machabaeus 

'  1  Machahees,  iv.  46 ;  ix.  27  and  54  ;  xiv.  41. 


APPENDICES  303 

brought  to  Jerusalem  the  Jews  of  Galilee.  The  fact  is 
improbable,  and  the  story  seems  to  be  biassed ;  the  return 
to  Jerusalem  of  the  dispersed  Jews  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the 
clauses  of  the  Messianic  programme  which  the  book  of 
Machabees  likes  to  carry  out  by  means  of  its  heroes.  But  if 
Judas  Machabaeus  had  really  brought  some  of  the  Galilaean 
Jews  to  Jerusalem  about  the  year  164,  the  Judaisation  of 
Galilee  would  have  had  a  century  and  a-half  for  its  accom- 
plishment, a  century  and  a-half  during  which  the  rule  of  the 
Machabees  spread  over  the  whole  of  Palestine,  and  might 
impose  Judaism  in  Galilee  as  in  all  other  parts  of  Judaea, 
except  Samaria. 

VIII. 

Spelling  of  Pkoper  Names. — We  had  several  systems 
to  choose : — 

To  follow  the  traditional  transposition,  and  say  "  Moses," 
"  Samson,"  "Jerusalem,"  "  Samaria,"  etc. 

To  represent  the  Hebrew  spelling,  and  say  "  Mosheh," 
'  Shimeshon,"  "  Jerushalaim,"  "  Shomeron,"  etc. — as  Ledrain 
has  done  in  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  which  is  unreadable 
to  the  inexpert. 

Eeuss,  and  the  majority  of  modern  translators,  have,  in 
different  degrees,  adopted  a  mixed  system ;  Eeuss  says 
"  Moses  "  and  "  Jerusalem,"  but  "Shimeshon"  and  "Shome- 
ron." 

We  felt  that  it  was  better  to  adhere  to  the  first  system,  and 
we  have,  as  a  rule,  followed  the  spelling  of  Lemaistre  de  Saci. 
[The  familiar  spelling  of  the  English  Bible  has  been  generally 
retained  in  this  translation,  in  accordance  with  the  author's 
desire. — Teans.] 


INDEX 


Ablmelech,  2,  3 

Abraham,  60,  61,  62 

Adoni,  102 

Aholah,  153 

Aholibah.  153 

Alexander  the  Great,  105,  108,  124 

Alexandria,  Jews  at,  272 

Ammonites,  2,  6,  17 

Amos,  121,  129 

Anointed,  the,  246 

Antigouus,  124 

Antioch,  Jews  at,  272,  278 

Antiochus  Epiphanes,  224-7,  230 

Apocalypses,  origin  of  the,  227 

Apostasy,  laws  against,  32,  33 

Aristotle,  90 

Ark  of  the  covenant,  95 

Artaxerxes,  22 

Artaxerxes  Ochus,  124 

Ascension  of  Moses,  244 

Asherah,  7,  9,  11 

Assyrians,  3,  15 

Astarte,  11 

Augustus,  251,  288 

BAAL,  11 
Babylonia,  3,  20,  56 

Jews  of,  270,  271 

Balthasar,  230 

Bedouins,  1,  2,  6,  54 

Bel,  8,  11 

Benjamin,  63 

Bethel,  10 

Bible,  beginning  of  the,  48,  58,  59 

Caligula,  265 
Cambyses,  79 
Camos,  6,  11 

Canaanites,  70,  71,  84,  98 
Captivity,  the,  17,  21 
Cherubim,  151 

Christ,  meaning  of  the  name,  246 
Cicero,  278 

Colonies,  the  Jewish,  174,  193 
Commerce   at  Jerusalem,   40,    110, 
202 


Covenant,  the,  60,  67 
Cyrus,  20,  21 

Dagon,  6 

Dan,  10 

Daniel,  227-38,  247 

Darmesteter,  J.,  196 

David,  3,  44,  52,  114,  120,  208 

Davidic  empire,  the,  44,  46,  52 

Decalogue,  the,  86 

Deluge,  the,  56,  57,  60 

Democracy  born  at  Jerusalem,  144 

Deportation,  the,  21 

Desert,  wandering  in  the,  94 

Deuteronomy,  66,  74,  299 

Dispersion  of  the  Jews,  269-74 

EDOMITES,  2,  6,  17 
Egypt,  3 

Jews  in,  54,  79,  273,  278,  282 

El  Amarna,  1 

Elephantine  papyri,  the,  31,  79,  90 

Elijah,  156,  158,  160 

Elisha,  156,  158,  160 

Elohic  documents,  299 

Elohim.  101,  183 

Ephod,  the,  8 

Ephraim,  4,  5,  17,  52,  297 

Esau,  62 

Esdras,  25,  28,  29,  31 

Essenians,  253 

Esther,  book  of,  276-7 

Etymologies  in  the  Mosaic  books,  65 

Exodus,  66 

Ezekias,  16 

Ezekiel,  149-67,  178 

FAITH,  nature  of,  222 

Felix,  263 

Festivals  of  Judsea,  12,  13 

Festus,  264 

Gabaon,  10 
Gabriel,  233 
Galilteans,  the,  302 
I  Galilee,  260,  302 


305 


306 


INDEX 


Garizim,  Mount,  43 

Genealogies  of  the  Old  Testament, 

64 
Genesis,  character  of,  60-4 
Ghetto,  the,  290-2 
Greece,  the  genius  of,  89,  223 

HAM,  98 

Haman,  277 

Hammurabi,  3,  57 

Hananiah,  138 

Hebrew,  meaning  of  the  word,  298 

Hecatseus  of  Abdera,  90 

Hellenism  at  Jerusalem,  107,   123, 

225 
Henoch,  243 
Herods,  the,  250 
Hethites,  71 

Hierarchy,  the  Jewish,  41 
High -place,  the,  9 
High-priest,  the,  41 
Hillel,  249,  253,  256,  290 
Hispalus,  278 
History,  value  of  Jewish,  50,  55,  57, 

73 
Hittites,  3 

Holiness,  Jewish  idea  of,  101 
Horace  on  the  Jews,  288 
Horeb,  66,  86,  93 
Hosea,  119,  120,  126 
Hymns  in  the  synagogue,  207 
Hyrcan,  174 

Idolatry,  laws  against,  35-8 

Inquisition  at  Jerusalem,  83 

Isaac,  62 

Isaiah,  168,  175-93 

Isolation  of  the  Jews,  275 

Israalou,  1 

Israel,  1,  3,  52,  53,  61,  297 

Israelites,  2,  3,  4,  17 

Italy,  Jews  in,  274 

JACOB,  62,  63 

Jahveh,  6,  7,  10,  11,  27,  101 

Japheth,  98 

Jehoval,  meaning   of  the   name,  6, 

iwte 
Jehovic  documents,  299 
Jehovist  period,  81 
Jeremiah,  132-48,  178 
Jerusalem,  3,  4,  10,  19,  24,  39 
Jesus  the  Nazarene,  259,  260,  262, 

264 
Jew,  origin  of  the  name,  24,  90 
Joachim,  16 

John  the  Baptist,  257,  259,  261 
Jonathan,  240 


Joseph,  63,  66 

son  of  Tobias,  170 

Josephus,   Flavins,    155,    169,    170, 

225,  251-3,  262 
Joshua,  67,  70 
Joshua,  book  of,  84 
Josias,  5,  88 

reform  of,  87 

Judah,  4,  5,  17,  52,  297 

Judaisers,  82 

Judas  Machabseus,  231,  239 

the  Gaulonite,  257,  261,  265 

Judges,  period  of,  3,  9,  54,  71,  72 
Justice  in  the  prophets,  197-8 

Roman  idea  of,  197 

Justus  of  Tiberias,  262 
Juvenal  on  the  Jews,  288 

KERUBIM,  151 

Legends  of  Judaea,  14 

Legislation,  analysis  of  Jewish,  201 

Levites,  the,  41 

Levitical  period,  the,  90 

Leviticus,  66-70 

L6vy,  I.,  298 

Literature,     absence    of     in     early 

Judfea,  13,  25,  47 

character  of  primitive,  48,  49 

Luxury  condemned  at   Jerusalem , 

202 

MACEDONIAN  conquest,  105-8 
Machabees,  the,  225,  231,  239,  242 
Madness  in  the  East,  111 
Man  of  Sorrows,  the,  188 
Martial  on  the  Jews,  288 
Mashal,  48 
Mathathias,  231,  240 
Matsebah,  7,  9,  11 
Melchisedech,  64 
Menelaus,  225,  230 
Men  of  god.  111,  118 
Mesa,  7,  14 
Messiah,  the,  246 
Messianism,  246,  247 
Michol,  114 
Milkom,  6,  11 
Minor  prophets,  the,  149 
Mixed  marriages,  laws  against,  34 
Moab  stele,  the,  14 
Moabites,  2,  6,  17 
Moloch,  11 

Monopoly  of  cult  at  Jerusalem,  76-8 
Monotheism  of  the  Jews,  10,  32 
Monuments  of  Judaea,  14 
Mosaic  literature,  origin  of  the,  48- 
52,  58 


INDEX 


307 


Moses,  story  of,  56,  57,  66 
Moshlim,  48 

NABUCHODONOSOR,  16,  17,  132 

Nasi,  the,  163-4 

Nathan,  120 

Nationalism  of  the  Jews,  30-1 

Nehemiah,  22 

Neighbour,  Jewish  idea  of,  100 

Nineveh,  fall  of,  16 

Noah,  97 

Numbers,  66 

ONIAS,  225 

I.,  123 

II.,  168,  170 

Pact,  the,  60,  67,  70 
Palestine,  106 

occupation  of,  1,  2 

Patriotism,  origin  of  Jewish,  28-30 

Paul,  St.,  112,  296 

Peraea,  106 

Persians,  the,  20,  23,  39,  45 

Persius,  288 

Pharisees,  241,  251,  256 

Phassur,  135 

Philistines,  3 

Philo,  262,  277 

PhcBnicia,  8,  10 

Pompey,  244,  250 

Pontius  Pilate,  265 

Priest-levites,  41 

Priest-writers,  the  Jewish,  50,  51,  59 

Priests,  rule   of   the,  at  Jerusalem, 

39,  40 
Privileges  of  the  Jews,  283 
Prophets,  late  date  of  the,  301-2 

originals   of   the.  111,  115-20, 

122,  258 
Proselytism  of  the  Jews,  195-6 
Psalms,  the,  207-22 
Ptolemy,  124,  156,  171 

Philadelphus,  276 

Soter,  272 

Purity,  Jevdsh  idea  of,  100 

Religion  of  ancient  Judaea,  6-8 
Renan,  70 

Renascence,  the,  205 
Restoration  of  Jerusalem,  21,  25-7 
Roman  conquest,  the,  244-5,  249 
Roman  peace,  the,  285 
Rome,  genius  of,  205,  223,  249,  285 
Jews  at,  278,  279 


Sabbath,  the,  42 
Sadducees,  241,  251,  256 
Sadoc,  265 
Salmanasar,  15 
Samaria,  23,  43 
Samaritan  Pentateuch,  298 
Samuel,  113,  119,  156 
Samuel,  73 
Sancherib,  16 
Sanctuary,  the,  9-10 
Saul,  3,  112 
Sedecias,  16,  17 
Seleucus,  156 
Seneca,  223,  279 
Sennaar,  297 
Septuagint,  the,  276 
Shammai,  249,  253,  256,  290 
Sicaries,  253 
Sichem,  10,  94 
Silo,  10 
Simeon,  241 

I.,  94,  156,  166,  300 

Sinai,  66,  94 

Solomon,  4,  5,  34,  44,  52 

psalms  of,  244 

Strabo,  277,  282 

Stranger,  Jewish  idea  of,  100 

Supernatural   not  found  in  Greece 

or  Rome,  223 
Synagogue,  origin  of  the,  208,  220 

Tacitus  on  the  Jews,  287,  289 
Talmud,  the,  253 
Temple,  building  of  the,  22 

interior  of  the,  37 

measurements  of  the,  161 

Theocracy,  origin  of  the  Jewish,  39 

Theudas,  259,  263 

Thibet,  45 

Tiberius,  294 

Titus  takes  Jerusalem,  269 

Tyre,  105,  106,  107 

VALERIUS  MAXIMUS,  278 

Vernes,  M.,  38 

Virtue,  Jewish  idea  of,  212,  213 

WICKED,  Jewish  idea  of  the,  212 

Zadocids,  the,  159,  163 
Zealots,  253 
Zedekiah,  136,  141 
Zorobabel,  21,  22,  27 


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